Google just announced their new RSS Reader, called Google Reader. It's browser-based (of course) and has similar look n' feel to Gmail. Very Ajaxy. I'll play with it some more and report back later. For now, here's more info from SEW:
"Google Reader is a browser-based application that works with virtually all popular browsers on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.
Google Reader is "the most comprehensive feed finder available," said Jason Shellen, the Google product manager who spearheaded the development of the program. Comprehensive, yes, but Reader also adheres to Google's trademark simple, easy-to-use design philosophy. "We're trying to find an easier find and subscribe model for feeds," said Shellen.
The program features a Google search box at the top which allows you to search for feeds or do an entire web search. Like most other feed readers out there, Google reader has two panes. The left side displays your reading list and the feeds you've subscribed to, and a preview pane on the right allows you to read feed content.
Content can be displayed by relevance or date. Reader also employs algorithms that learn your content preferences and prioritizes content accordingly. This is similar to the auto-discovery feature for news that's part of the Google Sidebar."
More later...
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Is this all? They've been on the sidelines for so long I really expected more. The Ajax is good, but seems like everyone will have that soon. The podcast and video support is cool. The rest is ho hum, already done as well or better elsewhere, and even confusing. No reason for me to switch?
Posted by: Gary Silverman | October 7, 2005 11:35 AM
Wow, that is slow and clunky. Their feed search is totally confusing. What a disappointment.
Posted by: Brady | October 7, 2005 11:43 AM
Man, you'd think they could come up with something a little more original. I agree that the podcase and video support is cool, but really this is not super special at all. When are people going to recognize that the best way to read blogs is in a scrolling view that lists article after article, like Rojo does. I don't want to have to select each article before I read it, I want to scan through them very quickly.
Dissapointing.
Posted by: Jared | October 7, 2005 11:48 AM
You know, Jared, you made made a point that made me wonder if a gesture environment would be better suited for a feed reader than the typical click environment.
Example interface: http://dontclick.it/
Posted by: Brady | October 7, 2005 11:58 AM
Brady,
I think something like this has a lot of promise, but it smells like one of those things that would be abused, to the detriment of the end user, because it is cool. You know what I mean? There is nothing wrong with clicking as it is much more controlled and tactile than a gesture environment. I bet there is some combination of features, including gestures, clicking, ajax, etc. that could create a real kick ass environment for devouring tons of content, marking stuff as read, saving and indexing stuff for future retrieval, etc.
Posted by: Jared | October 7, 2005 1:25 PM
hey guys, great conversation - keep it going. I'm still in middle of conference transcribing sessions. So will check out Google Reader later.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | October 7, 2005 1:47 PM
http://www.google.com/reader
"Google -- Error
Server Error
The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request.
Please try again in 30 seconds."
It's been giving a 502 error for the last 5 mins. Hmm...
Posted by: PeterCashmore | October 7, 2005 1:57 PM
I like FeedFeeds ( http://www.feedfeeds.com ) which allows me to categorize my subscribed feeds in to multi level categories.
Posted by: Jessu | October 8, 2005 10:38 PM
I have to admit it is working better today. I guess they weren't expecting the traffic they got hit with coming out of the gates and that seemed to have been one of the large problems. I'm warming up a bit to it.
Posted by: Brady | October 8, 2005 10:51 PM