

Ex Google PM criticizes new Reader layout - suivix
http://brianshih.com/

======
buddylw
I don't care for the new interface and I agree that it's slower, but that may
just be because I'm not accustomed to the look. GUI changes are minor to me
and easily fixed with a greasemonkey script anyway. The real problem is that
they stripped out tons of functionality and didn't replace it with anything.
Google+ is not integrated. They added a button to share in google+ . That's
all. that's not integration. There is no way to get my friend's content on
google+ back into google reader.

That is the entire point of sharing in google reader. It's not a 'social
network' per se, it's specialization in going through RSS feeds. I find a
'friend' that looks at funny photos all day and he pics out the 10-20 good
ones so I don't have to look at funny photos all day. My feeds can be focused
around other topics. but this only works if sharing is super easy (like
pressing shift + s) and there is some way to get shared content back into my
reader.

Without that the social network is completely useless. I might as well be
emailing/IMing links to my friends.

I don't mind that they are using google+, but they need to think about this
for moment and actually make google+ useful in some way.

This would be roughly analogous to twitter removing hashtags and replies and
replacing them with a 'post to Facebook' button. What's the point?

~~~
cpeterso
> _There is no way to get my friend's content on google+ back into google
> reader._

PlusFeed is an unofficial AppEngine service that exposes Google+ posts as RSS.
You can then subscribe to the PlusFeed RSS URL in Google Reader.
Unfortunately, PlusFeed can only see other people's public Google+ posts
(since it's not logged in as you).

<http://plusfeed2.appspot.com/>

I wrote this JavaScript bookmarklet to open the appropriate PlusFeed RSS URL
for the Google+ user page you are looking at:

    
    
      javascript:void(open("http://plusfeed2.appspot.com/+location.href.match(/^https?:\/\/plus\.google\.com\/(\d{21})\/?.*$/)[1]));

------
ryanklee
I use Google Reader a lot, and so found this critique of yesterday's UI
rollout interesting. My own experience was not as full of grousing as this
guy's, but I do have my own complaints.

His complaints are (1) of screen real estate having been reduced to something
admittedly pretty insane, (2) increased number of clicks to share and (3)
decreased privacy in doing so (he's incorrect about the last: you don't need
to +1 prior to sharing; noted, he updates his post with a correction about
this), and (4) lack of contrast of the grey on white of titles and links (to
me titles appear black on white and links are underlined making them easily
identifiable -- was this changed?).

As for complaint (2), integration of sharing in Google Reader and G+ means
that there is necessarily going to be a bit of latency introduced, because
you've actually got to do the work of choosing who to share with. This doesn't
bother me: the precision and primacy of the circles concept in Google+ is what
attracts me to it over the convolutions of exhibition on Facebook.

Lastly, as for the first complaint, regarding screen real estate: My usual
daily objective in Google Reader is to be able to do triage on about 200 - 300
articles in less than 10 minutes. I am subscribed to a ton of feeds and in
order to keep pace I need to consume headlines and form a general intuition
about the content while doing as little reading as possible. I want to decide
between (1) "this is interesting, I'll read it later" and (2) "this is not
interesting, pass" on the order of milliseconds. I don't actually do any
reading at all in Google Reader itself, so his screen real estate gripe
doesn't really resonate with me. If I want to read an article I just re-tab
(or in the case of some content, usually videos or music, star it) it and
return to it later. His contrast complaint (4) would be relevant, but I'm not
seeing it.

Which brings me to my own central complaint. Namely, general sluggishness.
Because of the speed that I sift through articles, any delay between pressing
the "j" shortcut which advances to the next unread article and actually
advancing to that article is a really palpable, frustrating and significant.
Such delays are frequent -- very frequent. I haven't actually looked into what
the cause of this delay is computationally, but I'm fairly certain it's not a
bandwidth issue, because Google Reader keeps itself loaded pretty far ahead of
the current article you happen to have in focus.

In any case, as long as such delays exist, any UI issues are pretty much
secondary to my use case.

------
tung
I dislike the new layout mostly because it wastes a lot of vertical space,
particularly the fixed top part. Here's the user style I use to neutralise it:

    
    
        #top-bar { height: auto; }
        #search { padding: 8px 0; }
        #lhn-add-subscription-section { height: 48px; }
        #viewer-header { height: 48px; }
    

Adjust numbers to taste.

~~~
petedoyle
Thank you, that helped a lot. Here's my version if anyone is interested...

Additional changes: 1) Made the left hand navigation slightly grey to offset
so much white. 2) Made the list of articles have less padding (more "compact",
less "bloaty" :) ) 3) Removed the "Home", "All Items" and "Explore" links (I
never use them and just wanted it clean)

CSS: <https://gist.github.com/1333174>

Screenshot (Before): <http://cl.ly/083j2i3i0o2r1r2W3e1C>

Screenshot (After): <http://cl.ly/0s0g2X1r0T1U3V2q1b2Z>

~~~
lacerus
What is the easiest way to load these changes? Do you add them to your
custom.css or use an add-on?

~~~
duncans
Try Chrome Stylist:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pabfempgigicdjjlcc...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pabfempgigicdjjlccdgnbmeggkbjdhd)

------
GiraffeNecktie
The redesign of Reader looks like it was done by a junior designer who got the
memo that "white space is good" but didn't understand that little blobs of
white all over the frickin place are not actually that good. Reader is now a
mess of disconnected bits floating aimlessly in space. It's gone from being
quite serviceable to quite disfunctional.

~~~
gujk
That is the new style for the entire Googleverse. It came straight from the
top, not a rogue designer.

------
keeperofdakeys
This should probably link directly to the blog post, so it isn't lost in the
future. <http://brianshih.com/78073742>

~~~
adambyrtek
Which was submitted to HN before:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3181766>

------
pplante
I like using Reader to manage my feed subscriptions, but nothing more. I don't
want to share my content on any social network. Nor do I want to view the
content in an iframe. I would prefer to just click the row of the feed item
and have it open in my browser like normal links.

So for me the gui updates are sort of mixed. I agree its wasting a whole lot
of screen space, but overall I like that it shares the same look every other
google product is moving to.

I feel like I use Google Reader incorrectly because it has so many extra
features I have no use for. Anyone know of a product that does exactly what I
described above?

~~~
jackbach
I'm working on this concept: <http://forr.st/~wnA>

Key features are:

\- In the browser

\- Twitter like articles stream (just post titles)

\- Nice UI

\- Pin to read an article later

\- Star to bookmark an article

\- Organize in folders

~~~
joeshaw
So, how long until we can try it out? I'm happy to be a beta tester for you.
:)

~~~
jackbach
The current status is: app design and mark-up (html + less) 90% done, front
end (js with backbone) 40%, back end (node.js + mongoDB) 20%, product page
design and mark up 70%.

I'm so happy you feel like testing it :) you (or anybody that wants to) can
contact me. My gmail is jackjackbach.

------
dxbydt
I use google reader everyday at work on Internet Explorer 7.0 ( bank-mandated
browser, don't ask ). Worked fine until this new layout change. Today I login.
It says "Your browser is not supported" ! Hmmm...never happened before. Now I
get 3 vertical scrollbars, 1 horizontal scrollbar and lots of whitespace. 3
vertical scrollbars to scroll thru an article ? Which one do I scroll ? There
are weird color artifacts - like when I click on an item in LHS, its a little
bit red, then white, then red again. There's a black dropdown "View in Reader
Play" what is that...click...I get a new fullscreen window with a whole lot of
high contrast white on black text with large fonts...WTF...Dude gimme back my
old google reader. This one is definitely broken on IE7. I'm all for ui
redesign, but pls don't break what works well on older browsers.

~~~
lreeves
Google phased out support for IE7 across their Apps platform in August. It
shouldn't be surprising that other new versions of their products only support
the newest and second newest versions of a browser.

------
nextparadigms
I like Google's new design style for its services, but as soon as I saw the
new Reader I realized something was off. I found it harder to read the
headlines. Maybe it's because of too much space between them, or maybe because
the lines between them are as dark as the headlines. I'm not sure, but I know
I can't read through the headlines as fast as before.

I think the decision to integrate +1 is the right one and they should do it
with all their services. I haven't tried it yet, but if what he says is true,
then they need to lower the amount of clicks you need to share something.

~~~
cked
Scanning all the headlines is more difficult now. Additionally, seeing what
rss feed has new articles was also not very easy for me.

I couldn't find the +1 button instantly. Overall, I am not very satisfied. I
am looking into alternatives now.

Overall, I like they new layout googles is rolling out on al l their products.
Reader was the first were a felt something is not working here.

------
motti
The Reader team must be thanking their lucky stars that their product lives on
and that Reader hadn't been given the chop like other non-mainstream services,
e.g. Google Notebook, Code Search. Ultimately it's a techie tool and most
internet users likely aren't aware of feeds let alone Reader.

I bet they agreed to any hurried G+ shoehorning as it's a sign Reader isn't
being wound down.

------
otaku888
They ruined a really impressive web application. Thanks to a HN recommendation
I've fully gone over to Tiny Tiny RSS <http://tt-rss.org/redmine/> which is
quite similar to the old reader in many ways and self hosted. Click Settings >
Import/Export, download OPML, then import OPML. Away we go.

------
mwilcox
This user style was posted in the reddit comments:
[http://userstyles.org/styles/55556/google-reader-new-
interfa...](http://userstyles.org/styles/55556/google-reader-new-interface-
tweaks)

~~~
rfvtgb
Thanks. That part with the blue background burrowed from the old layout goes a
long way to making all that white less jarring.

------
BlueMaxima
Reader is remarkably slower for me now and half the keyboard shortcuts stopped
working after the redesign, I finally made the switch to RSSOwl and I'm pretty
happy about it.

------
jscheel
Google does seem to be trying the "one size fits all" approach. While it may
work on a grand scale, trying to standardize the look across their apps, it
definitely falls short when you get into the particulars of each platform's
individual needs. Beyond that, though, for their "new look" to significantly
slow down my browser is unacceptable. New UI should not be so heavy that it
materially affects the page's performance.

------
neuromancer2600
I wouldn't miss the old design too much if there were a chance to adjust the
display density. So, where's the switch to change that? If this were
consistent in design, I'd expect it to be around the same location as in
Gmail. But it's just not there.

------
puffyresearch
The layout can be tightened up a little bit. I experience no significant lag
when scrolling or changing feeds. Imo, the blogosphere is overreacting. I
disliked the look and feel of the old one :)

------
carbon8
Regarding sharing, on the mobile (or, at least, iPad) interface, the only
sharing option I can see is the basic +1, which, as far as I can tell, isn't
seen by anyone unless the go to a user's google plus profile and click the
tab. As a result, I can longer share in any meaningful way via my primary
consumption device.

Edit: to add, there doesn't appear to be any way to view my +1 items on my
iPad, since the google plus mobile interface apparently lacks that section.

------
mwexler
Ok, so lets say you want to keep Google Reader as your back end, but want a
new front end (ala the various apps on iOS). Is there a good alternative
online front end (open source or paid) that can replace Google's front end,
but still offers things like "mark unread"?

------
antimora
Yeah, I don't like it either. The line separation between content boxes is not
clear. It reminds me of a news paper layout instead of being a web app.

I am using Reeder for now, before I can find a suitable theme.

------
michh
I don't really care about the layout, I care that they destroyed my favorite
social network. Google+ does not offer anything near the functionality that
Reader had.

------
cjoh
Judging by the tone and language of this critique, it sounds more like a
bitter ex-employee who "didn't feel appreciated for his brilliance" than an
honest effort.

------
grk
Does anyone have suggestions for Mac RSS readers that sync with google reader?
I'd like the sync because I use Reeder on iOS.

~~~
pplante
Then why not use its bigger brother <http://reederapp.com/mac/index>

~~~
grk
Poor reviews, no ability to test it before paying $10.

~~~
Pheter
Reeder for mac is an amazing piece of software; I cannot recommend it enough.

~~~
stock_toaster
Thanks for the info.

I am in the same boat as grk. I wanted to try it, but $10 seemed to pass that
'oh its only a dollar or two, what the hell' threshold. Couple that with the
poor reviews for the mac version, and I was dissuaded.

------
esrauch
I can't read the OP because of the extremely bright yellow makes it feel like
my eyes are on fire. Is it just me?

------
chrismealy
GR stopped working for me on Chrome (works on Safari). Weird

------
vizzah
newsblur.com anyone?

~~~
mwexler
Great site, interesting idea, but doesn't sync very well with Google Reader,
so kind of a burn-the-boats jump.

