Has Google Reader Just Gone Real Time?

Updates at the foot of the post.

Did Google just turn on the PubSubHubBub spigot and turn Google Reader into a real-time news source?

Long have people complained that Google Reader took too longer to notice and spread news. Some RSS feeds were over an hour late. Now, people are beginning to notice that the Google Reader uptake speed has just gotten better, much better.

In response to Jesse Stay’s questions to Google as to just what is going on with the new speed in Google Reader, Google corporate was a bit mum. Only a little, however.

In his words: “I quickly queried a friend of mine at Google, who stated, “They can neither confirm nor deny my suspicion” (that it was launched), but I was “observant”.  Sounds like they just launched Pubsub Hubbub support.”

This means that for blogs that publish via PubSubHubBub, Google Reader might now accept that information instantaneously.

This means that for all intents and purposes, Google Reader could become just as real-time as Twitter, if not more given the nearly constant Twitter timeline lag.

We have reached out to Google for comment, when we receive denial or confirmation we will update.

If your blog is not PubSubHubBub enabled, this is how you can set it up to be, allowing (probably), your feeds to be given even more real-time live from Google. Head over to Feedburner and select the feed that you want to enable with PubSubHubBub. Now click on the Publicize tab and selected PingShot in the column on the left of available services. Refresh, and you should be live with PubSubHubBub.

Or, if you so desire, there is a WordPress plugin (of course), that you can grab here.

Update: Google just got back to us.

Brett Slatkin a software engineer on the Google App Engine time (currently working on PubSubHubBub) just told us “Nothing to announce right now, but it is interesting to see what people are observing.

Update 2:

Google has just announced new features to Google Reader including better a recommendations service but no mention of any real time or pubsubhubbub updates.