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Goodbye Google Reader

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Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#61

Post by bconway »

conesus wrote: post #24
knowtheory wrote: post #13

I used Google Reader for years and years as a central repository for all of the webcomics i read. I switched to Newsblur this year and haven't looked back. It definitely has a better take on sharing.

Glad somebody mentioned NewsBlur. I run NewsBlur and have been aggressive in developing it into a world-class feed reader. Native iOS and Android apps, a nice shared stories feature, and it's actively developed. See for yourself, since it's open-source: http://github.com/samuelclay . And because I run my own feed fetchers, you don't have to worry about the inevitable sunsetting and neglect of Reader. Also means I can…

I've tried NewsBlur a couple times, but found it unable to keep up with feeds that update existing items in-place. When I asked why, the maintainer said I was using it wrong. shrug Back to gReader.

Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#62

Post by conesus »

bconway wrote: post #61
conesus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad somebody mentioned NewsBlur. I run NewsBlur and have been aggressive in developing it into a world-class feed reader. Native iOS and Android apps, a nice shared stories feature, and it's actively developed. See for yourself, since it's open-source: http://github.com/samuelclay . And because I run my own feed fetchers, you don't have to worry about the inevitable sunsetting and neglect of Reader. Also means I can…

I've tried NewsBlur a couple times, but found it unable to keep up with feeds that update existing items in-place. When I asked why, the maintainer said I was using it wrong. shrug Back to gReader.

NewsBlur does a fantastic job of updating stories when they get updated. Not only do you get the updates but NewsBlur will show you the diff between the original story and the latest story. I'd love to know why you had a bad experience.

Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#63

Post by conesus »

smsm42 wrote: post #55
conesus wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glad somebody mentioned NewsBlur. I run NewsBlur and have been aggressive in developing it into a world-class feed reader. Native iOS and Android apps, a nice shared stories feature, and it's actively developed. See for yourself, since it's open-source: http://github.com/samuelclay . And because I run my own feed fetchers, you don't have to worry about the inevitable sunsetting and neglect of Reader. Also means I can…

Interesting interface. With my almost 500 feeds, not sure yet if I'd like to use paid version, since Google one is free, but I'll take it for a test drive. Some feedback: - "Original" button definitely didn't do what I expected. It just closed everything and took me to the target site. Maybe it's just for some "unframeable" sites but that's how it worked. - "Keep unread" and "Mark as unread" definitely missing. Somet…

Just to note that you can mark as unread by either right clicking in the story title or by hitting 'u' (get a list of all keyboard shortcuts by hitting '?').

Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#64

Post by DanielBMarkham »

This was good. Thanks Chris.

There's a lot of thought-less consumption of (supposedly) free technology going on. I keep waiting to see more backlash about it. Instead I see a person here or there figure it out, share with others, everybody nods their heads sagely, then we go on as always.

What with YouTube purging a bunch of fake video watches this week, it certainly looks to me from the business side that we're scaling the freemium model way past where it would naturally take us. We're creating empty houses full of sock puppets. Meanwhile somebody has to pay the electric bill.

Keep up the good writing!

Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#65

Post by leephillips »

Shooti wrote: post #56
leephillips wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of development does it need? It does what it's supposed to do, no?

I'd be content if they added back the feed/folder autocomplete on the search box which was removed after the UI refresh.

Interesting -- I never noticed it did this.

Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#66

Post by rdl »

zanny wrote: post #59
mistercheese wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For HackerNews readers, and also for me that's probably true. However, the popularity of Twitter would indicate to me otherwise.

Twitter became popular because Firefox / Chrome got rid of their in-navbar subscribe button and Google didn't advertise Reader. They had incentives to monetize doing things their own way, and every average joe who would go to twitter would have the easy path to just using what is in front of them or having to discover feeds in the page info, install an addon to return the subscribe button, and find an RSS application…

Yeah, I think one could have built IRC and RSS into good enough products to essentially reach out to everyone currently using Twitter who never used IRC/RSS.

I still think there's an opportunity for something better-than-Twitter, IRC, RSS in the mobile space. Twitter is SMS mobile, but has what is honestly a shitty client experience on (everything, but especially) mobile.

I wish someone would do something with the same initial goals as Diaspora (self-control, etc.), but focused on mobile, with ease of use on mobile as the goal. Snap Chat is kind of a step in that direction, but I'd rather have something where users got to explore the continuum of ephemeral stuff (like Snap Chat) to semi-permanent (like Twitter) to more permanent (like a blog, designed to be referenced in the future) to really permanent (publishing).

Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#67

Post by ersii »

wslh wrote: post #32
ersii wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do? I've noticed that Google Reader only seems to keep about 30 to 60 days worth of items - at least for me. The only thing that I can think of, in terms of historical records, in the UI - is the 'how often is this feed updated?' graph under feed information. I disagree with you, their main advantage is that they're Google. So they won't get shunned/blocked by webmasters. Other people/services can and do get blo…

I wrote an article showing Google Reader historical cabilities http://blog.databigbang.com/extraction-of-main-text-content/

Cool! I'll give it a thorough read

Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#68

Post by icebraining »

zanny wrote: post #59
mistercheese wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For HackerNews readers, and also for me that's probably true. However, the popularity of Twitter would indicate to me otherwise.

Twitter became popular because Firefox / Chrome got rid of their in-navbar subscribe button and Google didn't advertise Reader. They had incentives to monetize doing things their own way, and every average joe who would go to twitter would have the easy path to just using what is in front of them or having to discover feeds in the page info, install an addon to return the subscribe button, and find an RSS application…

Twitter became popular because Firefox / Chrome got rid of their in-navbar subscribe button

When Firefox 4, the first version without the button, was released, Twitter had already 200M users.

Re: Goodbye Google Reader

#70

Post by zanny »

rdl wrote: post #66
zanny wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter became popular because Firefox / Chrome got rid of their in-navbar subscribe button and Google didn't advertise Reader. They had incentives to monetize doing things their own way, and every average joe who would go to twitter would have the easy path to just using what is in front of them or having to discover feeds in the page info, install an addon to return the subscribe button, and find an RSS application…

Yeah, I think one could have built IRC and RSS into good enough products to essentially reach out to everyone currently using Twitter who never used IRC/RSS. I still think there's an opportunity for something better-than-Twitter, IRC, RSS in the mobile space. Twitter is SMS mobile, but has what is honestly a shitty client experience on (everything, but especially) mobile. I wish someone would do something with the sa…

Why are you just targeting "mobile"? If you were making a new global chat system, it would almost certainly be cloud hosted and baked into a web app. The main reason that xmpp / jabber don't catch on is that you can't treat it with delayed delivery like you can twitter, and you can't broadcast messages.
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