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My offer to Google Reader

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Re: My offer to Google Reader

#81

Post by CountHackulus »

rkudeshi wrote: post #8
confusedreader wrote: post #5

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really understand the huge community backlash to the Reader rework. I spend hours in reader every day, and it wasn't until they added in G+ that it actually became easy to share.The addition made it so I could share within a community I was already involved in rather then a few people in some disconnected Reader community. From my perspective they actually removed the useless…

How big is your display? I'm on a 13" MBP (1280x800) and there's significantly less space allocated to reading now, which is my greatest frustration.

I agree, it's essentially unusable on my netbook now.

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#82

Post by jarek »

microcentury wrote: post #76

It really is astonishing how much bile and vitriol can be caused by a UI change. I guess it's a subset of the general dislike of change most people have. And it's also amazing how absolutely certain some people are that their own view is the right one. I'm not a fan of the new UI yet, but I suspect in a few weeks I will have forgotten what the old one was like.

What is your screen resolution?

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#83

Post by CountHackulus »

wyclif wrote: post #44
jedbrown wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a share-to-G+ that does not involve a public +1. And I want G+ to manage "unread" status so that I don't see the same things over and over. And keybindings in G+. The social features of Reader were not great, but we had an active group of about 30 people who shared research papers. Quite a number of new collaborations and papers were born in Reader comment threads. I see between 100 and 200 items each day, per…

I want a share-to-G+ that does not involve a public +1. You can do that. Use "Share" in the upper right of the OneGoogle bar.

This works, but then you have to use the mouse, and when you're done sharing, context isn't returned to what it used to be, so keyboard shorcuts (n, shift+n, j, k, l, etc...) don't work until you click on a story to focus.

Also, I can't hit l to like (maybe p to plus now?) or shift+s to share.

You can change my sharing options, you can change the look and feel. But messing with my keyboard shortcuts is tantamount to murder.

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#84

Post by Jamiecon »

confusedreader wrote: post #5

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really understand the huge community backlash to the Reader rework. I spend hours in reader every day, and it wasn't until they added in G+ that it actually became easy to share.The addition made it so I could share within a community I was already involved in rather then a few people in some disconnected Reader community. From my perspective they actually removed the useless…

Normally I'm the person who makes this type of comment. I'm not a fan of resistance to change, or contrariness in general - especially the particularly annoying and overly dramatic Internet Blogger brands.

However for me the crucial missing feature is being able to view and comment on your friends' shared items within Reader.

I'm completely OK with Google requiring me to have a Google+ account, and see the sense in the merging of the two 'social networks'. I'm also fine with my shares appearing on Google+. I'm happy to configure a Circle to handle my shares.

But there's no way for me to read the items that my friends who are Google Reader users have shared _within_ Reader, as either individual or merged RSS feeds. This is something I used to be able to do, and now I can't - with no replacement.

That's why the backlash is justified in this case.

PS - Google you could make me happy just by having a 'Friends shared items' menu item which aggregates Google+ shares from Reader. That's all it would take.

I'll have fond memories of pressing 'Shift + S', C, and typing a message to a small group of mates for a while though. Those were the days!

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#85

Post by armaanahluwalia »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #79
armaanahluwalia wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if this is considered blatent advertising or not. But I worked pretty hard on getting my chrome extension replacement for google reader done. I would love it if people would check it out. I made it because I couldn't stand the UI for Google Reader in the first place. I'm open to adding features like short cut keys ( fairly easy to implement) Please check it out at http://www.digi-dil.com/MESH

Was going to give it a whirl until I saw it was a Chrome extension. I use Chrome but thus far resisted any content formatting extensions. Extensions feel a little too ActiveX control-ish for me.

Well I'm not sure how I can convince you other than to say it is quite like running another web page on your browser. Quite literally. Chrome extensions are built using HTML, CSS and Javascript just like anything else on the web.

The reason I think this extension makes sense is purely because users should have control over the way in which they read and see content. I'm not a big fan of restrictions being imposed on us just because some designer somewhere thought that's the way it should be. I've built in an editor that let's you create your own viewing interface. Give it a shot!

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#86

Post by gchucky »

Jamiecon wrote: post #84
confusedreader wrote: post #5

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really understand the huge community backlash to the Reader rework. I spend hours in reader every day, and it wasn't until they added in G+ that it actually became easy to share.The addition made it so I could share within a community I was already involved in rather then a few people in some disconnected Reader community. From my perspective they actually removed the useless…

Normally I'm the person who makes this type of comment. I'm not a fan of resistance to change, or contrariness in general - especially the particularly annoying and overly dramatic Internet Blogger brands. However for me the crucial missing feature is being able to view and comment on your friends' shared items within Reader. I'm completely OK with Google requiring me to have a Google+ account, and see the sense in t…

I wish I could upvote you even more - this is _exactly_ my criticism with the new Reader. The experience of sharing links has essentially split into two parts: I can share items with my friends from Reader to G+, but if I want to see anything my friends have shared (or if they want to see my posts), we have to go to G+. It's not cohesive anymore.

If they just added a place where you could view other people's posts in Reader, that'd be perfect. Let it pull from a Circle or something and that's it.

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#87

Post by brlewis »

microcentury wrote: post #76

It really is astonishing how much bile and vitriol can be caused by a UI change. I guess it's a subset of the general dislike of change most people have. And it's also amazing how absolutely certain some people are that their own view is the right one. I'm not a fan of the new UI yet, but I suspect in a few weeks I will have forgotten what the old one was like.

What part of this post sounds like bile and vitriol to you? I t reads to me like a clinical analysis, not an emotional reaction.

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#88

Post by brlewis »

gord wrote: post #51

Why not just launch a startup and build a superb reader that solves the problem and looks nice? Wouldn't it be better to have the freedom to implement your own version of what the ultimate Reader is, especially in newer tech [ websockets, node.js, realtime updates, drag to rearrange widgets .. whatever ] Id love someone to make a nice reader [and a nice mail groups] web app, Id enjoy working on these myself. It must…

That might be too much like what he just did: http://blog.friendfeed.com/2008/01/another-new-friendfeeder....

(They sold to Facebook for $50MM)

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#89

Post by Raphael »

wyclif wrote: post #42
magicalist wrote: post #4

I'm a long time, heavy user of Reader, but as a disclaimer: my usage consists of the letters j, k, m, and v, so I'll admit that I don't care at all about the lost social features, and my short cuts and usage patterns remain unchanged. This article seems no different than any other of the reader articles submitted in the last few days (especially the one by the other former googler that worked on reader). If his offer…

Don't forget the "f" key. Even more frequently used under the new design.

Life-changing feature.

Re: My offer to Google Reader

#90

Post by karolist »

gord wrote: post #51

Why not just launch a startup and build a superb reader that solves the problem and looks nice? Wouldn't it be better to have the freedom to implement your own version of what the ultimate Reader is, especially in newer tech [ websockets, node.js, realtime updates, drag to rearrange widgets .. whatever ] Id love someone to make a nice reader [and a nice mail groups] web app, Id enjoy working on these myself. It must…

I guess when the time to pay would come most people wouldn't bother and stick with whatever is good enough, in this case Google Reader.
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