What just happened?
Imagine if when Google announced the new Gmail UI, they also said
Many of Gmail's social features will soon be available via Google+, so in a week's time we'll be retiring things like replying, forwarding and filters inside of Gmail.Now read this.
What was lost?
- Missing Featuressee the Missing Features page on this site
- the announcement on Pluswhere he closed comments, after hundreds of scared/sad/angry comments from Iranians who use Reader since their government blocks Facebook and Plus. Update: comments recently reopened.
- Google Reader Getting Overhauled, Removing Your Friendsthe comments at this article are pretty articulate
- http://googlereaderlexicon.wikispaces.comthe introduction to this wiki is eloquent
- Garrett Guillotte breaks it all down
- purity and danger on ReaderDolly said it all a year ago
- Why I Love Google Reader
Community
- https://groups.google.com/group/google-reader-diasporaJoin the Diaspora Google Group and help us figure out how to fix Reader, or where to go if we can't
- https://groups.google.com/group/sharebrothe Sharebro Google Group is more for developers to collaborate on solutions we will be rolling out as they're ready
- http://bit.ly/GoogleReaderPetitionprobably too late, but they did get OVER NINE THOUSAND
Several post-apocalyptic communities have sprung up. My favorite is The Diaspora.
Funny
- https://twitter.com/#!/pinboard/status/131139094943236097
My theory is that the Senior Vice President for Bad Decisions got lured away from Yahoo to Google
- Google Reader Downfallbrilliant, even among the brilliant panoply of Downfall parodies
Mein Führer... There are no more shared items.
UI Fixups
- New Google Reader RectifierChrome Extension that fixes some whitespace and layout issues. Sharing still gone.
- Google Reader Plus Theme fixedi think he "fixed" it a bit too much but it's a start -- hosted at userstyles.org
- Google Reader CompactCSS munging userscript by lipsumar
- Google Reader Compact Minimal For Small Screen by Massimiliano Ferrari
- Google Reader Compact (Stb) by http://userscripts.org/users/369554via https://plus.google.com/u/0/105170258389555213273/posts/8iy46vmYt1Q; A simplified version of an existent Script > http://goo.gl/165A9
- FTFY G-Reader by http://www.2app.in/
By the way, beware of userscripts.org! They have deliberately misleading ads. Click the "Install" button in the upper right, not any big "Download" button in the center of the page.
Replacement Readers
- HiveMinedFrancis Cleary is writing a new RSS Reader with old-school sharing built in
- Tiny Tiny RSSrequires you to run your own Apache web server
- HiveMinedstill pre-alpha
- NewsBlurpretty slick, but still no social features. US$12-36 (your choice)/yr for premium
- http://pinboard.in/howto/pinboard could be a great backend for shared item feeds
- reBlog
A reBlog facilitates the process of filtering and republishing relevant content from many RSS feeds. reBloggers subscribe to their favorite feeds, preview the content, and select their favorite posts. These posts are automatically published through their favorite blogging software.
- ridllrcreates a "public tag" and uses google signin to restore some 'people you follow' tech
- Shareaholica "share this on X" (on steroids) browser plugin for the 6 major browsers
- Google Reader Share by Emmanuel Pireputs a 'Share' button inside the new Reader that adds the current item to your personal RSS feed, served off the author's web site
My point in making this plugin is that the share feature should be OPEN and STANDARD. I'm willing to gather a community and define a standard way to share items (anything) via bookmarklet or even a new sharing button in ALL reader apps ! Just like you can tweet any link, you could share any feed item.
- RSS Sharea Chrome extension that attempts G+/Reader integration
RSS Share for Google Plus and Google Reader is an extension that does two things: * Adds a Google Reader section to the Google Plus homepage * Adds a "Share on Google+" button on Google Reader -- This way, whether you mainly use Google Reader or Google Plus you can keep up with current events and webpages and instantly share them if you feel like it.
- https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/fougrapi/MzljxPKXKZ0/jP0i9DqBrpkJ by Mihai P. (Google Reader dev)
Basically anything to do with sharing (broadcast tag), liking or friends is going away. The API calls will still succeed even after the social features are gone from our UI, but eventually write requests will start to fail (at the same time as Google Buzz going read-only).
- Reader Sharera Chrome extension that uses the old Google system for sharing. Sadly, it will soon break.
- lots of other userscripts are similarly dead men walking
broken replacements
Googlers and ex-Googlers Comment
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/114228948437847649793/posts
I built Google Reader's unread count feature. I am the (1000+) #OccupyGoogleReader
- https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150873265615018&set=o.236228939769149&type=1&theatera long-winded but eloquent "I am the 1000+" protest sign
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/101274756338042764331/posts/4DkrPNF6VW8Laurence Gonsalves' comment on the above photo
- Reader redesign: Terrible decision, or worst decision?by ex-Googler ex-Reader Product Manager Brian Shih
- http://fury.com/2011/10/changing-google-reader-for-the-better/Brian Fury reiterates what I said in https://plus.google.com/u/0/107397735779828096052/posts/DZUMNJt8Zmk my "Look Here" G+ post (not that that solution's not an obvious to anyone with a technical mind and without an agenda to forcibly relocate people into Plus)
- http://fury.com/2011/11/my-offer-to-google-reader/
As the former lead designer for Google Reader, I offer my services to Google, rejoining for a three month contract in order to restore and enhance the utility of Google Reader, while keeping it in line with Google’s new visual standards requirements. I will put my current projects on hold to ensure that Google Reader keeps its place as the premier news reader, and raises the bar of what a social newsreader can be.
- Fixing What Ain't Broke
Jason Hsu - What really baffles me is how many users still think the New Design is okay after pointing out all the serious usability problems. Normally as an engineer I wouldn't be arsed to make a visual aid in support of an argument, but I just had to for the atrocities committed upon Reader: (Google New Design = GND = electrical ground = "at zero potential")
Commentary
- http://googlereader.blogspot.com/2011/10/upcoming-changes-to-reader-new-look-new.html
- https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195416057199691
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/10/26/farewell-google-reader-well-miss-you/
- http://www.williamtoll.com/digital-strategy/marketing/google-reader-update-googles-update/
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/10/21/the-unsocial-network-why-google-is-wrong-to-kill-off-google-reader/
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/10/20/big-changes-coming-to-google-reader/
- Our Beloved Reader is Changing
- http://notes.kateva.org/2011/10/google-reader-this-is-going-to-hurt.html
- http://www.extremetech.com/computing/101011-6-google-reader-replacementsnone of which are social, or even attempt Comment View
- Why Google Matters To Us Iranians
- Protest in Washington DC this Wed at the Google HQ to save Google Reader:
- Metafilter is on the scene
- World's Youngest Leading Social Network Eats World's Last Major RSS Reader: Google Reader Gets Plussed
- For me, this is the destruction of the only online space I truly give a shit aboutNot much in this one but I love the title
- http://inessential.com/2011/10/24/google_reader_and_mac_ios_rss_readers_tha somewhat technical perspective about the impact on the RSS reader ecosystem
- here's an RSS app developer making a pragmatic, but sad decision
Google will continue to support those features in its API even after they disappear from Reader's UI. But at some point (I don't know when yet) they will cease to function, and you'll be unable to share articles in FeedDemon or follow the shared articles of other users. Before that happens, I'll release a new version of FeedDemon that removes those features.
- the petition by @brettkeller (now >4000 signers)
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/10/23/dont-be-evil-a-better-way-to-integrate-google-reader-and-google-plus/
- http://www.didyoulearnanything.net/2011/10/23/save-google-reader/
- http://purityanddanger.blogspot.com/2010/10/google-reader.html
- http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/10/world-surprisingly-angry-about-end-google-reader/44109/
- http://www.bdkeller.com/2011/10/save-google-reader/
- http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/25/iranians-upset-over-google-reader-changes/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
- http://blog.bl00cyb.org/2011/10/farewell-dear-reader/
- http://journaloftheory.com/2011/10/23/theory-google-is-maiming-the-world%E2%80%99s-only-respectable-social-network-reader-1000/
- This isn't really a howto so much as a description of why a move from Reader to G+ will be irritating and frustrating:
- Another reporter asks "Was Google Reader Already a Great Google Social Network?", with solid news analysis as well as bullet list of "The Advantages of Google Reader as a Social Network"
- Top Blogger Andrew Sullivan chimes in:
- Sullivan cont.
- Here's a Delicious stack with some links we've already seen here:
- Jon Bois is sad:
- Brett's petition hits 8000 entries:(I can't wait for it to be OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!)
- Here's DCist with photos of the DC protest:
- Google Kills Its Other Plusmentions the Reader furor near the end
- Google Finally Responds to the Reader Outrage
- The World Is Even Angrier Than Before About the New Google Reader
- Ex-Google Reader Product Manager Posts Scathing Review Of Reader Redesign
- Everybody Hates the New Google Reader, Especially The People Who Designed Google Readerhas some nice amusing/enraging twitter def screencaps
- http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/11/former-google-designer-will-clean-readers-mess-fee/44493/
- Hate the new Google Reader? Blame Steve Jobs.
Focus is good, and focus is important, but you shouldn't try to be Steve Jobs unless you're Steve Jobs.
- Reader/Plus integration implemented, then hidden, now soon removed
- http://abarrigadeumarquitecto.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-its-like-circle.html [in portuguese]
We are witnessing the end of an era of open Internet. Soon we will all be enclosed in circles.
- Readerocalypse by Leslie Michael Orchard 11/1/11echoes my point that circles point the wrong way, plus a good list of alternative RSS Reading and Sharing solutions, and points out that "the changes seem to have removed most of the value from the service for me, so I'm moving on as I was invited to do" and use services like pinboard more, instead of plus
- Louis Gray: How To Make the New Google Reader Social With Google+mostly good for the comments, with much lamenting and gnashing of teeth
- https://plus.google.com/100535338638690515335/posts/95ZsWiCG3xS
John Montgomery: not being able to share and read shares in a unified manner is a deal breaker. I shared 6-8 items a day and read 20-30 from my friends. Those shares? Gold. Every single one of them. Now it's all gone. These changes destroy the only part of the internet I gave a damn about.
- Dreams, discernment, and Google Reader
- How Google Reader's Overhaul Betrayed and Irked Its Most Passionate Users (RWW)
- Google Doesn't Seem to Want to Fix Readerpointing out that the new Gmail UI has a feedback button, but the new Reader UI doesn't -- probably just an oversight, really
- Google Reader Backlash: A Fuss Over Nothing?the leading question title is answered in the negative -- it actually goes into great depth about how Google gutted the Sharebro features and community with no viable replacement
- Unoccupy Google Reader by Jack
Shafer
Adding extravagant white space to Google Reader is like adding white space to the phone book.
- Why Curated Content Matters: A Lament for Reader Share
If you used Reader Share, you're probably in mourning today. No longer can you click the share button at the bottom of a post in your Reader, sending it to a sidebar widget on your blog and popping it into the "people you follow" section of your friends on Reader. No longer can you count on that easy click in Reader to show you the links shared by the people you follow -- those trusted curators of content whose taste and judgment you rely on.
- Why Curated Content Matters: A Lament for Reader Sharesame as above, syndicated at Wired
- RSS vs. Streams by Felicia Day
social media outlets [like Twitter and Facebook] are INFO COLANDERS! 5% of your followers will see anything you post, and that's probably only within 20 minutes of posting
- 3 Google Reader Changes Need Repair Now
- Google Reader Share by Emmanuel Pire
My point in making this plugin is that the share feature should be OPEN and STANDARD. I'm willing to gather a community and define a standard way to share items (anything) via bookmarklet or even a new sharing button in ALL reader apps ! Just like you can tweet any link, you could share any feed item.
- a pinboard tag called 'occupygooglereader'mostly redundant with this list, but of course pinboard lists are RSS and ironically, this one is not :-)
- decoupling of the Google Reader features
- There's been some interesting critical discussions of some design and product changes within Google Reader recently... by Chris Wetherell
- How to Bring Back Google Reader's Original Sharing Featurea love letter to sharebro Emmanuel!
- Weekly Wrap-up: Google Reader Has No Alternatives and More
- Tristan's comment describing how Reader's new UI fails as a UI
Many, many articles and posts have been written in the past few weeks. Here is a thorough, but not necessarily complete collection.
11/11ish