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Google Reader now 66.6% less antisocial
Those of you who use Google Reader for your RSS fix may have already noticed the newly-added following and liking features.
There's a new box in Reader's sidebar aptly called 'People you follow.' Using the search feature, you can hunt for specific names or terms in Google Profiles and follow them to view news items they like. As with your subscriptions, Reader will update counts next to each user when new items are liked.
When sifting through your feeds, you'll now see how many people liked a particular item. Click the count, and you'll see their names. Hover over a name to view a snippet of their Google Profile or click to the full version, to view their location on a map, or to follow him or her.
Other blogs have taken issue with the like feature, saying it adds confusion. Personally, I'm not sure where the confusion comes from. I use stars in Reader to tag items I want to revisit later or blog about - not to indicate whether or not I like a piece. If I want to do that, well, I'll click like instead. Feel free to share your thoughts on this in the comments!
Why the 66% in the title? The last of the three big additions is decidedly less social. Google has added a new option to Reader's existing sharing features, allowing you to choose only certain groups of people (from your Google Contacts) to view and comment on your shared items.
There's a new box in Reader's sidebar aptly called 'People you follow.' Using the search feature, you can hunt for specific names or terms in Google Profiles and follow them to view news items they like. As with your subscriptions, Reader will update counts next to each user when new items are liked.
When sifting through your feeds, you'll now see how many people liked a particular item. Click the count, and you'll see their names. Hover over a name to view a snippet of their Google Profile or click to the full version, to view their location on a map, or to follow him or her.
Other blogs have taken issue with the like feature, saying it adds confusion. Personally, I'm not sure where the confusion comes from. I use stars in Reader to tag items I want to revisit later or blog about - not to indicate whether or not I like a piece. If I want to do that, well, I'll click like instead. Feel free to share your thoughts on this in the comments!
Why the 66% in the title? The last of the three big additions is decidedly less social. Google has added a new option to Reader's existing sharing features, allowing you to choose only certain groups of people (from your Google Contacts) to view and comment on your shared items.
Comments
3
Subscribe to commentshaonanzhang98Jul 16th 2009 11:51AM
part of the confusion is, say you "like" an item. you can't find that item again once it's been read and flows downstream. there is no "Starred Items" equivalent tab for "liked" items. and you can't search and filter by "liked items" like you can with read items or starred items. when you "like" something, shouldn't you be able to find it again? that's why i star the item as well as like. and if it's really good and want to share with friends, i have to star, like AND share. there should be more clarity about what the "like" button actually does and how it differs from the share button. because right now, there doesn't seem to be too much of a gain to click the like button vs the share or the star button.
Lee MathewsJul 16th 2009 11:53AM
Maybe it's just me, but I just don't see it. If I want to tell people I like a post, I click like. If I want to do ANYTHING with it later, it gets a star. Maybe it gets both, but like just = like.
LimerickJul 16th 2009 1:38PM
I would rather have some way of organizing my starred items then what someone likes.