Google Reader is good
For what it's worth, I still feel like I've been unfair to the guys at Google over Reader.
I know how much work must've gone into that thing, because I know how something like that could've been built. I really think it's just because it's not the right kind of app for me, and I'd like to see someone make that app. And, I'm also a bit burnt out on the whole AJAX Madness buzz.
Thing is, Reader is so good at being what it is. I'm just critical because it's good at being what I don't want.
Archived Comments
The issue that I have with Google's reader stem from a rushed to market feel that I think that it has. As a developer, I'm sure that you've been in the position where suits see a business opportunity and decide to launch an app that's not ready. That's what the Google reader feels like to me. More so when the acquisition of Ranchero (owner of NetNewsWire) earlier this week is taken to account. For example, the lack of rudimentary autodiscovery in supplied urls. That's a no brainer to add and yet it's missing. I suppose that the developers could've neglected that feature, but that seems like something that would've been added in a later internal development release prior to a public beta launch.
Eh, it's all supposition on my part, but if it is the case that perceived business opportunity outweighed holding off a bit and shipping a solid app then that's not a good sign for Google at all.
That's exactly what I though. After an initial warm-up phase where I liked it, I decided it's not for me, and the app feels very, very beta to me. Not that it has errors, but it's doing very little to be actually helpful. Especially after an import I feel pretty much lost. Everything is new, no way to mark stuff as read. Upon revisiting everything is unmarked again. No way to scan snippets. That which is there maybe nice, but it's not useful enough to get me to switch.
Yeah, it's not quite perfect, but it's also a Google LABS project. So, it's not really meant for 'release' as much as it's a proof of concept sort of thing..
BTW Les, I fixed the comment thingy.. It's called loading Wordpress..