Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ How Google Reader's Overhaul Betrayed and Irked Its Most Passionate Users

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
I am one of Google Reader's power users. I don't use the community features so much (I have other applications for that) but I am finding the new design difficult to work with - and, you know, I did use the 'share' feature quite a bit, it had a specific purpose, and several hundred subscribers. And I'm not going to send stuff to Google+ the same way I sent to share - G+ is different. As the article says, "Even a former product manager for Google Reader chimed in with a biting critique of the overhaul and a small, but passionate #OccupyGoogleReader meme was born. " I'm also finding that Google Reader has been 'optimized' for Chrome (which is a nice way of saying 'broken for Firefox') so it spends a lot of time stalled and unable to move. "Because in its big push to reposition itself as a social-friendly company, Google just displaced an entire community of users, effectively shutting down a social ecosystem that had existed for years." Yep. Because Google doesn't want to use RSS, IMO, and is working to push RSS out of the system, to be replaced entirely by +1 buttons and social sharing in a closed environment. Not good.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 24, 2024 10:25 p.m.

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