Google has released a new version of Reader that’s been tweaked a bit. Google has added a new set of tabs in the trends page called “Friends Trends,” where you can see which friends share the most content and whose shared items you read.
Another change relates to the comments feature, which is now available to Reader’s non-English users. Google says that sources of items in Reader are now visible in the comment view and makes it easier to mark items as saved.
Google says that it has focused this new version on improving the user experience by recently revamping the new user page that tries to help beginners to understand how Reader works. In addition to a welcome video and a tutorial, Reader points out the kinds of feeds that you can subscribe to. Google now lets you import feeds from your iGoogle page, making it easier for those who have existing iGoogle accounts to seamlessly integrate feeds between the two products.
Reader’s mobile interface also got a little makeover in the new version. You can now post notes from the mobile version and Google has fixed a bug that plagues non-Android phones causing items not to be marked as read correctly.
We recently wrote about Google Reader’s limitations as a social platform. Google recently launched several social features, including the ability to share items with friends of friends, and this new version also adds extra social functionality but the application still has awhile to go before it masters the social world.
I hate not being able to tell Google Reader who my friends are. I’d love to just say, "Hey Google Reader, look at my FriendFeed friends".
I don’t believe Friendfeed has killed Reader, but that time might be approaching. Let’s hope the changes here are just the start of making Reader, not a Friendfeed killer, but a bit more fun and interactive.
+1 Mike!
@Mike: +1. I’d like to have an address book API to my email contacts or LinkedIn contacts too.
@AJ there is one; http://code.goo.../apis/contacts/ unless you mean a UI
@Michael: But can I do that via Reader – meaning – can I simply say, import my contacts or address book and let me choose who I want as Friends for Google Reader.
And another one trying to catch Friendfeed! (by the way, when will the stats come back here?)
I cant seem to get wired magazine to load into my google reader. Do they block reader from accessing them?
A tweak is a good thing.
“The Google”? Really!?
Facebook Connect it.. then it will Rock!
Facebook Connect integration would be great but unlikely, I expect that we’re more likely to see further Google Friend Connect functionality!
It would be nice to see offline Google reader similar to offline Gmail.
Whilst we’re talking about Reader – can anyone tell me what’s happened to:
http://www.google.com/reader/i
I use this on my Nokia E71, and ordinarily it works beautifully. I think this version of the reader was intended for the iPhone originally. Well, it’s gone all super-wide-screen. For some reason the text doesn’t wrap any more and it’s about 1200 pixels wide.
FB connect would be awsome. I’d also love to be able to tweet items straight from the reader
i have no friends in reader.so no improvement for me.
Mandar -
We actually have offline access – go to Settings -> Goodies and you can read about it. Or just load Reader with Gears installed.
We were actually the first product at Google to have offline, much before Gmail
i will try to use this google services but i have no friend at here.
Using this service. Great service offered by google.