Comments on: Google Reader – Was I Too Quick to Criticize?

By: kevinmic’s blog » Blog Archive » Google reader, improving

kevinmic’s blog » Blog Archive » Google reader, improving — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:20:20 +0000

[...] to say I agree with Michael Arrington on the Google Reader. I tried it once a while back and wasn’t feeling it. Though it is probably worth mentioning, [...]

By: kevinmic's blog

kevinmic's blog — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 01:33:24 +0000

Google reader, improving…

Have to say I agree with Michael Arrington on the Google Reader. I tried it once a while back and wasn’t feeling it. Though it is probably worth mentioning, I have a hard time staying with any particular reader for any length of time….

By: TechCrunch » Web 2.0 This Week (October 9-15)

TechCrunch » Web 2.0 This Week (October 9-15) — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 07:13:54 +0000

[...] Kahuna (update), Gada.be, Google Reader (update), Yahoo Blog Search, Google Bookmarks, Wink, MeasureMap (update), Memeorandum (update), Yelp, Qumana (update), RememberTheMilk, Sphere (update), PreviewSeek, Reading Lists, Inform [...]

By: Kalyxo denkt

Kalyxo denkt — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 20:45:11 +0000

Webbasierte RSS-Reader

Nachdem inzwischen jedes zweite Medienunternehmen ein “me-too” RSS-Reader anbietet, soll hier ein kurzer Ãœberblick Ã¼ber die verfÃ¼gbaren Systeme gegeben werden.

…

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 19:23:01 +0000

I’ve spent a lot more time on it and I have to say that my first impression was off. I did have to load my opml file twice to get the “my subscriptions” working, and it is a very slow application, but I like what I see so far.

By: Figo

Figo — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 19:16:18 +0000

I never write one-liners on talkbacks and comment pages, but in this case I have nothing to add beyond this: GReader is a bad application and I do not intend to use it for rss.

By: Aaron Hockley

Aaron Hockley — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:49:55 +0000

I don’t think My Subscriptions should be the default page… I think it should be a user option on which page you want.

Me? I don’t want my feeds broken up, I just quickly go through, regardless of source, using the “star” feature to tag those I want to look at in depth later. Being able to quickly go through a hundred articles is more important than having to look in 50 different feeds for those articles.

By: Srini

Srini — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:11:18 +0000

I am afraid I do not really see what the big noise is all about. Yes, there are some usability issues, to my mind only 2 count: unsubscribe a whole block of feeds and label a whole block of feeds. These still need to be done. Otherwise, I like the beginning that Google reader made. I find the design extremely nice, I like some of the nifty touches they added, like Gmail this, Blog this etc. The point is, this is a product here to stay. I am pretty sure that within a couple of months, most of these features will be in place and then the fun begins.
So the real question is, did they release this too early? Maybe.

By: An

An — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 10:21:39 +0000

Follow the Comment by Jon â€” October 10, 2005 @ 7:53 pm

I think even Yahoo is better suited than Google’s new reader. In my.yahoo.com I especially like the preview. Maybe the recent critics by Yaho’s Semel is well dosed. Google can’t do everything better.

By: herbert

herbert — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 08:25:41 +0000

Hello there!

Why does everybody makes such advertisement for the google rss reader. I also tested it like many others but i dont like the interface and usability.

I am using searchfox rss reader since some weeks and I had to say that it is the best RSS Aggregator I know and I have testet.

So perhaps it will be possible for the author to test http://rss.searchfox.com it’s in beta stage and a registration is only possible via mail but it one of the best i think.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 08:06:42 +0000

I can remove a subscription but it still appears in the main list.
Bleedin annoying. Otherwise its a great wee rss aggregator.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:28:05 +0000

“in my opinion, this is probably because you and some other fellow who commented above, were too used to a specifc U/I (bloglines)”

Not sure about the author of the post but I picked up Bloglines *extremely* quickly and easily. I certainly didn’t have to hunt down for any little thing and it is an extremely simple interface.

Also, I disagree on the “specific UI” part. The fact is, Bloglines isn’t really a ’specific’ UI. The Bloglines UI is pretty much the ’standard’ UI for an RSS reader. I could go from Bloglines to any of the many other 2-pane feed readers and have little difficulty picking it up.

Google Reader’s interface is a radical departure from the ’standard’ 2-pane/3-pane feed reader interfaces which could very well have been a good thing–if it had been implemented correctly.

I don’t expect Google to come out with the same old, same old. In fact, I’m used to Google coming up with something innovative and better–like Google maps, Gmail, etc. Google Reader at it’s current state though is actually worse than most other feed readers out there. It’s not intuitive. It’s not better.

By: luigi

luigi — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:05:44 +0000

was = were

By: luigi

luigi — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 07:05:16 +0000

i believe you certainly was too quick to criticize. in my opinion, this is probably because you, and some other fellow who commented above, were too used to a specifc U/I (bloglines) and your mindset not quickly enough open to accept new user interface experiences. i’m certain google will improve speed. having used the g-reader for three days now, except speed and unknown behaviours: rate of refresh, relevance, i’m satisfied with this free product.

By: gavin

gavin — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 03:27:11 +0000

Still totally confused by the “sort by relevance” feature. Relevant to what? The FAQ says it’ll “prioritize items that seem most relevant to you.” What does that mean? Just a total mystery. Relevance is one of those things that engineers love but remains pretty opaque to outsiders and ultimately confusing.

Something Findory.com gets right, incidentally. Wondering why Findory put a particular story on your page? Click on it and it’ll tell you why. Meaningful contextual relevance!

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 03:16:02 +0000

Chris, thanks very much for your thoughts and confirming that the functionality was there all along. My apology stands. FAQs and speed improvements will be very well received.

By: nicky

nicky — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 03:08:34 +0000

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By: Chris Wetherell

Chris Wetherell — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 03:03:59 +0000

Thanks for the re-review! Sorry about not having a better FAQ, we’ll be starting a blog in the next day or so to help. And everyone’s comments/reviews are very welcome as all of the engineers are watching for blog feedback. Funny enough, blog feedback is currently the easiest way to make sure that at least one engineer sees feedback.

We’ve been working madly to keep up with performance demands and have released some patches. Reader is intensely popular and we’ll be updating as often as is possible until it’s fixed.

On future development I can say there will be significant updates over the next month, particularly in regards to UI as we’ve had a bunch of stuff planned that didn’t make it in time for the announcement.

Oh, and to confirm: the drawer with the functions was there all the time.

Okay, gotta get back to work – we’re in the middle of another push to our production servers.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 02:53:10 +0000

I don’t think you were too quick to criticize. In fact, I think you went far too easy on them.

The product is very unintuitive and the inability for people like you and I to find the type of things you missed show it’s a poorly designed product.

Look at Bloglines–how long does it take you to find the unsubscribe button? How long does it take you to find out how to sort by feed in Bloglines?

Bloglines was well designed. Google’s has a long way to go before it’s a good product.

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Tue, 11 Oct 2005 02:51:32 +0000

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By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:32:33 +0000

Hmm. If that’s the case, then perhaps I should update the title to “Major Improvements to Google Reader”.

I wish there was better FAQ/documentation on the site.

By: Franck Mahon

Franck Mahon — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:31:04 +0000

“Was I Too Quick to Criticize?”
I don’t think so, because when I checked (at almost the same time as you did) I didn’t saw those functionality.
They must have been added after your review. That’s why it’s still in beta…