Reaction To Google Reader

Whew! I was afraid that I was going to get bashed when I didn't like the Google Reader, that there had to be something wrong with me that I didn't like it. Turns out, I'm not the only one. Obviously, its not a huge cross section, but the comments on my post feature only one person who liked it (sorry, Dave Winer says "appears not to have been touched by human beings before it was introduced to the world" and that it "is a huge step backward from what was available in 1999″. I'm inclined to agree. Google Reader doesn't follow the very popular River-Of-News style, where article after article can be read in a scrolling list, allowing you to fly quickly through massive amounts of news. Google Reader doesn't follow the Outlook-style view of email that many are used to, where your news comes in and you can view an overview at a glance, then choose what to read now. Google Reader doesn't follow the MyYahoo style, in which your news is presented in a static view with all of your feeds presented with a limited amount of content. Google Reader blazes its own path, which might not be the best idea. Its actually an awful search, if you look at it. The feed search alone should have stopped Google from shipping this. I was surprised to hear that Shellen was behind the Reader, especially since, despite never speaking to the man, I've always been a fan of his (probably due to reading his blog). I can say this: Clearly, a lot of technical expertise went into the Reader. No one can deny that. They didn't copy any other readers, that's for certain. I just don't like it from a usability perspective. I think the Reader could have benefited from some old-fashioned focus grouping. Chris also says: Google just announced the Reader at the Web 2.0 conference, so I haven't had a chance to play around with it yet. I did get a demo of the program last August when I visited Google, and was impressed with what I saw at the time-particularly with the auto-discovery feature that recommended feed content based on what you read. Findory offers a similar service for feeds. Another issue: Who got to see this ahead of time? Next time you are going to release a product so complex, you might want to make sure there are bloggers out there who have been shown how the product works, and given enough embargo time to explain to their readers what to do. I know I wouldn't have been quite as negative on the Reader if it didn't take me over a day to get it to work. Google embargoes product releases all the time. I would assume someone got this under embargo, but if they did, they certainly didn't help the rest of the blogosphere understand the product. You'd have a better reaction if Search Engine Watch had a "Guide to Using the Google Reader", and if at least some number of bloggers weren't overwhelmed by the learning curve. I'm still overwhelmed (and thus, underwhelmed). small OPML file. It hung reporting "Your subscriptions are being imported" After awhile, I got bored as it was completely non-functional. I exited the browser, got back in and upload the Threadwatch: Like many, I've become so used to the perpetual Google Beta that i've started to forgive them a few rough edges when they launch something new. This new Adam Lasnik does a good job of running down a lot of the problems. Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog.