Firefox Greasemonkey and Google Chrome script for Google Reader sorting subscriptions and feeds by the number of unread items mimicking that popular feature from the now defunct Bloglines.

AskMe I'm going to get right to the point:

Firefox Greasemonkey and Google Chrome script for Google Reader sorting subscriptions and feeds by the number of unread items mimicking that popular feature from the now defunct Bloglines.

or

Google Reader Sort Subs.

I shifted from the Bloglines RSS reader to Google Reader not long after I realised it was broken and wouldn't be receiving much in the way of development funding and new(ish) owners Ask officially announced its closure.

One of the features I've missed terribly was the ability to sort by RSS feeds by the number of unread items so that I could easily see which haven't been looked at in a while/have the most content to read through.

This seems to be something of a holy grail for a number of users. Search the Google Reader forums and there are dozens of requests. I've made one myself before and here's what I think is the most recent.

I Asked Metafilter to see if a script exists. After a couple of misunderstandings with users who didn't understand the question, Michael, the same genius who created the script to remove duplicate items last year offered to have a go at putting something together.

And succeeded. Here's his technical explanation.

What this boils down to is if you install the Greasemonkey/Chrome script, a couple of buttons will appear above the feed list and you'll then be able to sort them in ascending or descending order, up or down. Just like Bloglines.

Unlike Bloglines, the sort isn't permanent.  Delete a folder or refresh the page and the original alphabetical search will assert itself.  But the sort is still just one click away.

Thank you once again Michael.

Now, once Google adds a save feed search feature, Reader will be just about perfect.