13 comments

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  Adam Ostrow

  1 year ago

  I'm not especially bullish on the "Notes" feature yet myself, though it will certainly be cool to aggregate that data on ReadBurner if it takes off. Cross-posting is what will make that feature much more interesting.
  
  However, as you note, I really like the bookmarklet - it pretty much kills the need for me to use del.icio.us, since I'm already doing most of my sharing/saving in Google Reader anyhow. With this, it's now officially my universal link blog.
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  mathewi

  1 year ago

  I agree, Adam -- although it's going to take awhile to replace
  del.icio.us, which is where I've got about 10,000 links stored. I'm
  going to have to try it out and see how it goes.
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• 

  calamityjake

  1 year ago

  I dunno. I agree that the changes are kinda mild, but they're not insignificant (I've been pushing for both for a while now). And Google has something FriendFeed doesn't--a lot of users. And when it comes to social networking, I think user numbers is the big deal (assuming you can meet a baseline of usability), and anything Google builds into Google Reader has a huge user base.
  
  That said, I would of course like more interactivity and better functionality. I'm hoping Google isn't done working on this stuff just yet.
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  mathewi

  1 year ago

  I hope it isn't too, Jake -- and I'm not suggesting user base doesn't
  matter, because it does. But I think features matter too. And don't
  get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Google Reader -- I basically gave up
  Netvibes for it, and the main reason was the sharing.
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• 

  shiva

  1 year ago

  I have to disagree with you on this. I really like this feature (no, I like important plugins to be folded back into the app (so that I can get rid of plugins) - see Wordpress/wp-cache for why).
  
  Now, the stuff that shows lack of qualty:
  1. I can't edit posted notes
  2. Every time I add a note, it's a new shared item.
  3. The power of this note sharing comes alive, when it tracks conversation. eg. If I add a note to something Scoble shared, then create a thread.
  4. @adamstrow - cross posting would make it a killer feature (I can think of plugins for each blog that want to allow this kind of support)
  Come on google guys.. you can do better.
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  mathewi

  1 year ago

  The fact that each item with a note creates a new shared item is
  definitely a problem, as Scoble has mentioned (on FriendFeed, of
  course). And I agree that threaded conversations based on notes --
  which are really comments -- would be a great feature to have. Too bad
  Paul and the guys are building those into FF now instead of working
  for Google :-)
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  Scobleizer

  1 year ago

  Yeah, not to mention I'm seeing a ton of duplicates flow through the whole system because neither FriendFeed, nor Google Reader, understands how to combine duplicates into a single cluster.
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  mathewi

  1 year ago

  That is definitely a pain, I agree, Robert -- and on FriendFeed it
  gets to be an issue in all kinds of places, like when three writers at
  TechCrunch all post an update to FF saying that the same post has just
  been posted.
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  shiva

  1 year ago

  I am thinking a wordpress plugin, that will allow for cross syncing comments using microformats. I think this problem is easier address if done in co-operation with the source for a post. (ofcourse it will not work well with non-blogs)
  
  your thoughts?
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  mathewi

  1 year ago

  I think that kind of idea is what we need, Shiva.
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  andymurd

  1 year ago

  As if to confirm your argument, there's quite a few comments on this article over at FriendFeed:
  
  http://friendfeed.com/e/1ef07800-a74c-6b37-368b...
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  ianbetteridge

  1 year ago

  I started writing a comment, but when I got to 300 words I thought I'd better do it as a blog post instead - it's at http://www.technovia.co.uk/2008/05/google-reade... :)
  
  The short version: FriendFeed is successful largely because it adds features that Twitter users have wanted for a long time, ie a proper threaded discussion view. It works for some people (like Robert) as a feed reader, because it's very "river of news" oriented (but if you don't like river of news, it's less useful).
  
  And Google actually already has a product which does everything that FriendFeed does, and more. It's called Jaiku - remember that? :)
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  lgedeon

  1 year ago

  There may be better or earlier tools out there that can do the same thing but I for one am glad they added it. See posts are supposed to be on one topic but rarely are. If I want to call attention to a specific part of the post or a particular quote, I can. I read a lot in Reader and would rather not have to switch to a different tool to have this ability. As a matter of fact I have signed up for other tools but went back to GR because it is the best tool for reading and sharing. This feature just made it better.
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