Comments on: Google Reader: Putting Scoble in Time Out

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Intelligent search agents that learn from our usage, and semantically identify new info that we'd like is on it's way. If I don't build it, Google, Facebook, Lazyfeed, or My6sense will implement it.

We simply want to be aware of all the possible goodies that could interest us by not only time (real time is still important), but matching criteria (tags/weights that help quantify what I enjoy).

Crowd sourcing helps with filtering, we all link something we like (google the first social crowd fiterer).

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:22:00 +0000

That's unacceptably slow. What is going on in there?
Your ff was never that slow right? Gwave is terribly slow as well (great group creating/testing it but if it doesn't speed up it's in trouble).

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:19:22 +0000

Aren't we all. It's such a great newsy/info/sharing service. Although I prefer threaded conversations on Disqus/blogs more. Posterous' comment stream is obnoxious (like. 300 comment ff post)

By: Alberto Saavedra

Alberto Saavedra — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:14 +0000

I haven't generated content in the form of a blog post for a long time so my opinion is only a reader's point of view (or without the publisher bias

I used Google Reader as my primary reader from late 2005 to early 2008, it was the best way to feel informed but it needed some maintenance to keep it manageable. When the shared items feature gained adoption I noticed “link blogs” were providing similar value than the feeds I subscribed so I started looking for human filters to maximize the amount of time I have to read news, and start following their Twitter handles too. The uh-huh moment came when I noticed that I was getting more satisfaction by following only ~100 Twitter users than keeping up with 500+ subscribed feeds. And things just got better with Twitter clients and FriendFeed (likes rock!) so there was literally no time to get back to Google Reader.

With PTFFSS, I went back to check out Reader but my reading habits have already changed. I don't want to read all Mashable or TechCrunch posts, only the ones the people I am following think are worth sharing. To read that content, I don't need to “make the decision” to open a Google Reader tab, it is just a couple of clicks away (or available in my smartphone) and if I feel I haven't received enough content I check @lgshareditems @scoblefaves or some Twitter Times to feel I am not way behind.

Having said that, I plan to give Google Reader one more try, as a Twitter client for “selected” accounts.

By: Chris Baskind

Chris Baskind — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:35:16 +0000

There is no more inhumane way to discover, sort, and analyze information than Twitter -- unless, of course, all you are interested in is what's new, hot, and of dubious quality.

And that's coming from someone who likes Twitter (though I admit it's tested me in the past). If you don't want to see those unread item counts (and I couldn't agree more with Robert on this issue), get a script and suppress them. Or try a low-clutter, low-noise RSS client such as Fever.

Either case will be easier than assembling a Byzantine array of lists and *still* having to mentally filter all the lunch menus, non sequiturs, and Mafia Wars nonsense. Gimme search and the more humane layout found in virtually all RSS readers. Better yet, bring on intelligent agents to learn what I like and start doing this stuff for me.

By: Scobleizer

Scobleizer — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:24:25 +0000

When I say Google Reader is slow, I'm not talking about the speed that items take to get to it. I'll do a video over the weekend. It literally takes a minute for my account to start up. It's ridiculous.

By: Kent Newsome

Kent Newsome — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:12:22 +0000

I don't know anything about that exchange, but Robert is a good guy in general, and particularly for someone with such a high profile in the blogosphere. He is, however, completely wrong about Google Reader.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:09:09 +0000

He said if I bugged him so much with his every second FriendFeed tweets that I needed more friends. A load of crap he is, don't pay attention to his marketing drivel.

By: Louis Gray

Louis Gray — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:46:45 +0000

Twitter is not a replacement for Google Reader. Neither is Facebook. Google Reader has no parallel and it will continue to be my foundation for absorbing and distributing the news for a long time, I bet. I like Scoble a lot myself, but he is suffering from PTFFSS (Post-Traumatic FriendFeed Sale Syndrome).