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New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

googlereader.blogspot.com

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Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#101

Post by redwood »

smokinn wrote: post #88
toyg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why they just didn't try to automatically convert the Readers categories of users into G+ circles, plus a button "not on G+? click here and join". Google -1 on this one. (and yeah, the new grey-on-grey style is really bad and depressing.)

I don't understand either. I fully expected them to add a new circle for me called "Google Reader Friends" or something but they didn't. Even better would've been in that popup saying hey look, something new! to give the option of creating that very circle. Very big and obvious oversight.

Google has a lot of trouble connecting with end users, especially end users that aren't of the majority of their users (e.g. users who use more than just search and gmail). This is more confirmation.

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#102

Post by indy »

rudyfink wrote: post #68

A few thoughts after a some use: I was part of a community of people I liked, and now, after I clicked a button, that was gone. I miss those people already. I don't recall anything on the text that clearly said "oh yeah, stuff will be gone, including your friends, and we meant to do that." If I want to share now, I have to do so publicly with the Internet or click a "share" button way in the upper right and then buil…

The following greasemonkey script should fix the 'grey on slightly darker grey' issue: https://github.com/indy/greasemonkey-scripts/blob/master/goo...

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#104

Post by anigbrowl »

I think the sharing complaints are overblown (although common sense would have said that they should be ported over into a new G+ circle or something similar). I do think that Reader was badly in need of an overhaul and that bridging it with G+ will turn out to be a winner.

But damn, that color scheme is oppressive. It's the New Web Brutalism. I hope that once everything Google is using the same design template they'll offer themes again and let you have one look across all Google products. This whitewash-and-grey with carefully rationed rectangles of primaries is depressing, like a grand opening in North Korea. I'm not saying that to be funny: looking at it makes me feel gloomy and want to do...something else. I'm using Google Docs less as well, for the same reason.

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#105

Post by anigbrowl »

po wrote: post #64
barrkel wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah. I kept looking for this share button you were talking about - I completely blanked on the actual Google header bar, which at this point I've mentally "edited out" on Google sites. My first thought was that that button would do something stupid - that it would share "Google Reader", not the currently viewed post. My problem with the new Reader is the lack of visual indication of read vs unread items.

My problem with the new Reader is the lack of visual indication of read vs unread items. Yeah, I had a few people complaining in my twitter timeline and I thought, "Everyone always bitches when something new gets rolled out. It can't be that bad, come on." I logged in and I wasn't impressed but it was he lack of read vs. unread that pushed me over the edge. Here's the main kicker of that: What's the point of marking…

Unread is black on white. Read is black on grey.

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#106

Post by anigbrowl »

edderly wrote: post #14
ambirex wrote: post #5

One early criticism (aside from the sharing bugaboo) is the header is larger making the allowable reading area much smaller. the topmost the feed content can be read is ~193px from the top of the browser. And you can't scroll down because of the way the page it built. Here is what firebug told me: 29px - account bar 59px - search bar 73px - feed toolbar 32px - feed title bar (in the reading pane)

More bars than Dublin...I agree, the waste of space is annoying. I can't even think of the last time I wanted to search my RSS feeds and it's taking up a chunk of space. On a 13inch Macbook add the Mac App bar, Chrome (tabs + search-url + bookmarks toolbar) a third of the readable area is covered with "bars".

For real. It's even worse in Google groups. I realized this a few months ago during the Chromebook beta test; Everything is a toolbar, and Chrome is giving me UI fatigue.

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#107

Post by dlib »

hosh wrote: post #51
hokkos wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can click +1 and then click on the grey "Share on Google+" to select to which circle you want to share.

The +1 is public +1 which not all of us want to do.

Indeed, very annoying. I want to share stuff with my friends and love the granular approach I can now take but if it means I publicly have to +1 it. I have no idea how public that is, can people see a list of all things I +1'd? Can friends?

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#108

Post by rmccue »

p4bl0 wrote: post #56
thesethings wrote: post #37

The no-sharing/discovery thing has hit me hard. If anybody out there has a social RSS reader start-up, feel free to reply to this and advertise your service. I will drag my friends to it along with me. (Yes, I use Twitter, Instapaper, news aggregate sites, etc. Yes social software has changed how i would otherwise discover links/news. But I still need an RSS reader, and the passive sharing in old Google Reader is a l…

I can't agree more. At least they allow us to download our data as JSON file. I used the sharing feature a lot . I just downloaded my shared-items.json file and it is 56.3MB large! I already tried Tiny Tiny RSS and NewsBlur but I don't really like them. There's rssLounge left, I'll try it tomorrow if I have enough time. Does anyone knows another one of these opensource webapp feed aggragator? For now, I'll continue s…

I develop one called Lilina which aims to be themable and pluggable, and offers APIs to that effect. I'd love to have feedback on it and see if it suits your needs.

http://getlilina.org/

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#109

Post by p4bl0 »

conesus wrote: post #62
p4bl0 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't agree more. At least they allow us to download our data as JSON file. I used the sharing feature a lot . I just downloaded my shared-items.json file and it is 56.3MB large! I already tried Tiny Tiny RSS and NewsBlur but I don't really like them. There's rssLounge left, I'll try it tomorrow if I have enough time. Does anyone knows another one of these opensource webapp feed aggragator? For now, I'll continue s…

Hey, NewsBlur's developer here. What didn't you like about NewsBlur? Lots in the pipeline, but I loves hearing what's off-putting so I can fix it for everybody.

I'm actually really fan of how Google Reader worked. But I can change my habits to use a free (as in freedom) software, that's not a problem. However, I didn't find how to create a feed of shared items, and that's a huge deal-breaker for me, I really need this feature (like I said in my previous comment, I use it a lot). Also, I'd love an Android app…
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