It seems like just yesterday we were complaining about the lack of options for the new “like” functionality in Google Reader. Okay, it was two days ago. And Google has already responded. A new option in the settings menu of Google Reader allows you to “Only show “Likes” by people you follow.”
It’s not quite the on/off switch that some people wanted for the feature, but I’d bet that eventually we’ll see that too. Still, this should ease the pain of those who simply did not care what RSS items random people like. Now, it will only be those users you know, or at least said that you know and want to follow.
I suppose if you really want to turn “likes” completely off, you could just unfollow everyone. But that’s probably not the social evolution Google was hoping for with the product.
[via Mike Knapp]
Less it more. But more options could be better. Only time and user feedback will tell.
Nice move. I hope to see the on/off feature soon too
Google has officially become more complicated than FriendFeed.
“But that’s probably not the social evolution Google was hoping for with the product.”
When will you guys realize that there are plenty of people who aren’t a whit interested in this social-web-2.0-evolution-connection-Twitter-cloud mumbo jumbo? Like, I just don’t care. I don’t *want* people seeing what I do online, I just want to be left the hell alone and to read my RSS (not Twitter!) items in peace.
How do I block someone from following me? Considering the majority of my starred items are jobs that I’m saving, I really don’t like the fact that co-workers are following me!!!!!
Eric, starred items are private to you (unless you’ve gone and explicitly shared them) so they shouldn’t be able to see them. Alternatively, you can just use another label (like “jobs”) and tag posts that are interesting. Those would be private as well.
Very cool feature. Customizes your experience.
I wanna work at Google
Great move ….but will all these features is google becoming complicated. Why i stated using google because it was simple and clean.
Side note: I noticed that of the 51 “people” following me, it turns out that a lot are the same profile in my Google Contacts i.e. duplicates.
So, the Google Contacts team UX choices showing up in my Google Reader team UX choices are more indicative of the coupling I’m seeing more now than in prior “beta” products.
Did you also notice that the “thoughts” section is a free form entry that includes title, body, and tags now?
Check out this totally SEO friendly URL
http://www.goog...c3a9a042ce92795
if you don’t like the display of likes, use this script
http://userscri...ipts/show/53924
which hides the likes and shows the number next to the like button in an unobtrusive manner
I want Google to implement filtering of items within subscriptions and globally based on user likes. I want it to tell me that “People who like the same type of stuff that you like, also like these stories:”. When Google implements that, Google Reader will be the absolute best place to read the web.
I don’t believe the increased options over complicate the functionality of Google Reader. Maybe it’s my mindset that has adjusted to using options and filters provided by the services to enhance the experience. I feel without an advanced level of customisation then they’re not going to be embraced by the wider Internet user.
Many times have I recommended Google Reader to friends but still they don’t see the purpose or social interaction. Increasing tools and awareness on different levels will only raise the appeal and likelihood they will use the feed reader!
This is good stuff, check this out
That’s a very good and challenging improvement, but still I have a problem with Google Mail they call Gmail. I have an account with Gmail but it is not that efficiently generated. It fails many times to the extent that I give up and forget about the mail account until the time I don’t have many things to do.
even though I like seeing others who liked stuff to find those interested in the same things as me I do like that google has given users an option to make a choice of what they want.
Hate to say this, but Google Reader is just relying on a non-relevant technology (RSS).
RSS was great when blogs started becoming popular and people got tired of having to visit 10 blogs to see if there were any updates.
But then RSS, which was suppose to eliminate noise started producing too much noise (how many unread items you have in your reader?).
We needed a different mechanism to learn about interesting stories. Twitter is currently the best tool for that. I doubt if GReader can build the community that Twitter built.
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