As a user of google reader since early 2008, I have been left distraught at the recent changes in their product.
What is purported to be a "fresh design" and a "google+ sharing interface" has turned out to be what I call a bunch of google's worst mistakes.
I have no gripes about Google trying to increase its google+ subscriber base or usage stats. I also agree that integrating their suite of existing products with google+ is the most sensible thing for Google to envision. It is also okay if Google needs to ruthlessly take decisions about retiring old products for whatever reasons, including that they do not work on the new Google+ paradigm.
In fact I must admit to hoping amidst all the excitement of the google+launch, that I would see a reads tab after the home, photos, profile and circles tab. It was clear to me that reader needed to become a part of the integrated google+ experience. I thought that the best way would be to have a reads tab; where one could view and if one wished, subscribe to their friends' reads on visiting their profile. On ones own reads page, one could see a list of all items one has subscribed to and read or shared.
I have used google reader primarily as an RSS feed reader and then as a bookmarking tool. The "social" features were an added benefit that I began to experience when I discovered a network of people with similar interests, both known and unknown, who began using reader. With a "social" RSS reader, one could discover and subscribe to feeds not just from different news sites but also subscribe to what friends have recommended. Essentially this was a second derivative feed - a filtered (and therefore personalised) news feed.
So to me, the Google reader presented a seamless and exclusive "reading" experience. I could read what I liked or what my friends liked and so on. The focus, however remained on reading.
However what happened was this and it still doesn't make sense to me.
Google reader wasn't retired. However, some of its features were and without a warning!
The share feature on reader was removed and replaced by share on google+.
The problem is that the integration with google+ is incomplete and makes reading & sharing a disjoint, pointless experience. I would have to read my subscriptions on google reader, and share on google+ with my friends. I would then need to go to google+ to see if my friends have shared or liked something they have read amidst their other social network-y rants.
I fail to see how either google + or google reader will be used any more than before by the replacement of the share feature. If they were not truly going to integrate the two products, would it not have been simpler to add another button saying share on google plus or +1 while letting other things stay the way they were?
Notwithstanding raison d'etre level messups, here are the other things that contributed to my anger.
1. No access to previously shared items on on reader.
2. Shared items available only in JSON format to take and leave if one wished!
3. No prior warning to users before making this upgrade.
4. Unsupported hosting of previously shared items. These items are inaccessible to users through a google reader supported user interface. Settings for these items can no longer be modified! This means I can access my friends publically hosted items through an unsupported URL and she cannot change her privacy settings on her data even if she wished to!
5. New UI design isn't great.
Is there anyone who can explain what the team was thinking of when making these decisions?
What is purported to be a "fresh design" and a "google+ sharing interface" has turned out to be what I call a bunch of google's worst mistakes.
I have no gripes about Google trying to increase its google+ subscriber base or usage stats. I also agree that integrating their suite of existing products with google+ is the most sensible thing for Google to envision. It is also okay if Google needs to ruthlessly take decisions about retiring old products for whatever reasons, including that they do not work on the new Google+ paradigm.
In fact I must admit to hoping amidst all the excitement of the google+launch, that I would see a reads tab after the home, photos, profile and circles tab. It was clear to me that reader needed to become a part of the integrated google+ experience. I thought that the best way would be to have a reads tab; where one could view and if one wished, subscribe to their friends' reads on visiting their profile. On ones own reads page, one could see a list of all items one has subscribed to and read or shared.
I have used google reader primarily as an RSS feed reader and then as a bookmarking tool. The "social" features were an added benefit that I began to experience when I discovered a network of people with similar interests, both known and unknown, who began using reader. With a "social" RSS reader, one could discover and subscribe to feeds not just from different news sites but also subscribe to what friends have recommended. Essentially this was a second derivative feed - a filtered (and therefore personalised) news feed.
So to me, the Google reader presented a seamless and exclusive "reading" experience. I could read what I liked or what my friends liked and so on. The focus, however remained on reading.
However what happened was this and it still doesn't make sense to me.
Google reader wasn't retired. However, some of its features were and without a warning!
The share feature on reader was removed and replaced by share on google+.
The problem is that the integration with google+ is incomplete and makes reading & sharing a disjoint, pointless experience. I would have to read my subscriptions on google reader, and share on google+ with my friends. I would then need to go to google+ to see if my friends have shared or liked something they have read amidst their other social network-y rants.
I fail to see how either google + or google reader will be used any more than before by the replacement of the share feature. If they were not truly going to integrate the two products, would it not have been simpler to add another button saying share on google plus or +1 while letting other things stay the way they were?
Notwithstanding raison d'etre level messups, here are the other things that contributed to my anger.
1. No access to previously shared items on on reader.
2. Shared items available only in JSON format to take and leave if one wished!
3. No prior warning to users before making this upgrade.
4. Unsupported hosting of previously shared items. These items are inaccessible to users through a google reader supported user interface. Settings for these items can no longer be modified! This means I can access my friends publically hosted items through an unsupported URL and she cannot change her privacy settings on her data even if she wished to!
5. New UI design isn't great.
Is there anyone who can explain what the team was thinking of when making these decisions?
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