Tag: Google Reader

Brian Shih on the new Google Reader interface

Brian Shih, an ex-project manager for Google Reader shares his thoughts on the new interface. I agree a lot with him. I also think that Google Reader should be integrated with Google+ and other Google projects, but the current version hurts that goal more than it helps it.

new sharing flow around the +1 button has actually made it harder to share. Where you used to be able to click one button, or hit shift-s to one-click share to your audience, you now need to:

  • Click +1 (no keyboard shortcuts for you)
  • Click the text box that appears that says “Share to G+”
  • Then choose your circle you want to share to (or let it default to public)
  • Then click Share

Keep in mind that on top of requiring 3-4 times as many clicks, you also now must +1 a post publicly to share it, even if it’s shared to a private circle. That bears repeating. The next time you want to share some sexy halloween costumes with your private set of friends, you first must publicly +1 the post, which means it shows up on your profile, plus wherever the hell G+ decides to use +1 data.

While I’m not too much concerned about privacy, I too find the new sharing way more difficult, time-consuming, and confusing.

The end of Bloglines

Via this post to Google Reader blog I’ve learned the Bloglines news.  The service will be closed on October 1st.

Today, Ask.com let our users know that we will shut down Bloglines on October 1. Not an easy decision, especially considering our loyal and supportive (not to mention patient) user base, but, ultimately, the right one given business reasons simply too hard to ignore.

While I myself switched four years ago, I know that some people are still using the service (hi mom!).  Everyone is encouraged to migrate to some other news reader. My recommendation is, of course, Google Reader.  And the migration process should be simple and straight forward: export subscriptions as a single OPML file from Bloglines and import them into Google Reader.

While Google Reader is a superior service these days, it came later and from a bigger company than the original Bloglines.  Back, when people were just figuring out how to use RSS en masse, Bloglines offered a simple and very convenient way.  It was so simple in fact, that you didn’t need to know much about RSS at all.  It was so simple, that even my mother, who avoids web services as much as possible, was able to use and enjoy it.

And even though I haven’t used Bloglines at all in the last four years, it’s sad to see it go.  For me it was one of those milestones in the Web history.

More social, less social

I just wanted to let you all know about the latest changes to this site.

Firstly, I removed the Latest Twits widget from the sidebar.  Somehow I am not using Twitter all that much lately.  I still love the service, but I have two problems with it.  Actually, it’s one, but I feel it in two separate ways.  Firstly, I still don’t have a good Twitter client application.   Not on my mobile, and not on my desktop.  I tried a billion of them, and I am yet to find one that suits me.  Without a proper client, I tend to forget to tweet, read other tweets, and respond.  Too bad.   Second problem is that I am annoyed by all the links that are posted in tweets these days.  Sometimes I just want to get the statuses only, to see how my friends are doing and what they are up to.  Instead I get a billion links, which I need to click, check, and follow.  As I said, I wish I could filter them out in my Twitter client, for those times when I have more time and better Internet connection.  The blog will still send the “new blog post” tweets to Twitter though, and I am still trying my best to use the service.  It’s just that judging by all the updates I do, the sidebar space can be used better.

Secondly, I added Google Reader shared items to the sidebar.  Google Reader is the application I use a lot!  And I share quite a bit of stuff.  Too bad it often goes unnoticed.  Sharing those links and articles via sidebar might give an extra bit of attention to those things that I think deserve it.  Just in case you are wondering which plugin I used – it’s Google Reader Widget by James Wilson.

Thirdly, I added some social network buttons in the upper-right corner of the website.  These are links to some of my other online profiles and also and easy way to bookmark, share, and promote either the whole website or a specific page that you liked.  The plugin that I used for this functionality is Fixed Social Buttons by Ioane.

Bits and pieces

Once again I’ve noticed that my blogging is getting behind.  Busy at work, lazy, and going through the mood change for the upcoming Christmas holidays – that all has a role to play.  But that’s not the major issue.

Thinking of what am I doing differently these days, I realized that my blogging activity got spread out all over the web, and therefore became less noticeable on my own blog.  I do more of Twitter, which is now integrated with the blog in the form of daily briefs.  I favourite more videos on Youtube, which now notifies the Twitter, and later still ends up in the daily briefs on the blog.  I do more bookmarks on Delicious, which also end up via Twitter in daily breifs.  And there is something else I do, which doesn’t come back to the blog – shared and commented articles in my Google Reader.

Actually, as far as writing goes, Twitter and Google Reader happen to be the only two places where I write at all now.  Once I realized that, I wanted to find a way to pull the comments and shared items from Google Reader into my blog.  But then I doubt if that’s the right approach.  The alternative being blogging and commenting about things not in the Google Reader, but in the blog itself.

I am still undecided on the matter.  Google Reader provides a really good interface for commenting and interacting with other people who read about similar topics.  On the other hand, my blog has more exposure than my Google Reader shared items list, and has better interface for discussions.  Perhaps, I should try and see how it goes.

What’s your take on comments in Google Reader vs. blog posts?

Google Reader : too user friendly?

I think of Google Reader as a very user friendly application. It clean and simple and only shows you things which you need to see.  Or does it any more?  Here are the options that I see for each RSS item:

Google Reader item options

Let’s see:

  • Add comment.  I can add comments to blogs posts and news and my friends can read those comments and reply and so on and so forth.
  • Add star.  Star is like a bookmark.  I can quickly find the starred articles with a single click.  And I can also share my starred articles by selecting so in the Settings.
  • Like.  I can “like” the article.  Other people can see that I liked it.
  • Share.  Share it with other people.
  • Share with note.  That’s like share and add comment in one.
  • Email.  This one is easy.
  • Keep unread.  So that I can easily find it and read later.
  • Add tags.  So that I can find it easily later and/or share it via Settings.

I am all for making sharing easy, but isn’t it too much?  I see it as a huge overlap in functionality.  Such huge that it gets confusing now.  What’s the difference between the “star” and “like”?  Do I “like” everything I “share”?  Do I “like” everything I comment?  Is it shared or “liked” if I just “Add comment”? How do I “star” or “share” everything I “like”? And so on and so forth.

I think this should be simplified in one action per option:  star, share, comment, email, tag.  If you want to bookmark, you “star” it.  If you want to share, you “share”.  If you want to comment, you “comment”.  If you want to star and share, then you actually click “star” and “share”.  If you want to comment and share, then add your comment and click “share”.  With boolean options everything comes back to the sane world – you either did it or not.

What do you think?