

Must Google Reader copy Twitter and Facebook? "Features" add clutter - Shakescode
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/07/google-reader-like-follow.html

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GiraffeNecktie
The new "x people like this" widget is really irritating. One of the nice
things about Google Reader (and most Google apps) is the subdued interface. So
why add these random screamers that give me absolutely no useful information?
I really couldn't care less how many people liked this article. If they really
must give me this information, keep it consistent with the rest of the UI, not
popping out in an eye-catching colour.

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smokinn
Especially since it's global across Google Reader. I couldn't care less that
some random person in Florida that uses reader liked an article that ended up
in my rss feed. I wish I could turn it off.

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randomwalker
You _can_ turn it off. I spend a lot of time in Google Reader, so efficiency
and lack of distractions is very important to me. I turn off widgets that I
don't use in most of the sites that I frequent.

The way you can turn it off it to install the Stylish extension for Firefox
(which allows user specified style sheets on a per-site basis), use Firebug to
find the div id or class of the widget you don't like, and set it to "display:
none !important".

Stylish is similar to greasemonkey, which means that you can usually find
someone who's already done what you're looking for, and shared it. Here is my
stylesheet to make Google reader minimalistic:
<http://userstyles.org/styles/12663> and here is what it looks like when
installed: <http://bit.ly/minimalreader> You can temporarily disable it with a
single click when you want to use any of the hidden widgets.

~~~
smokinn
Thanks but that only works on Firefox and I generally prefer to use Chrome
since it's so much faster. (The difference is even more striking in Linux than
it is in Windows.)

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randomwalker
Apparently Chrome supports greasemonkey:
[http://mashable.com/2008/12/15/google-chrome-greasemonkey-
sc...](http://mashable.com/2008/12/15/google-chrome-greasemonkey-scripts/)

(All Stylish styles are available as greasemonkey scripts.)

~~~
smokinn
Windows only though. I don't have windows. I'll try that once plugin support
works in Linux. Thanks.

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stalf
The guy on this article insists that any user must use all of the available
sharing option (like, share, share with note, email and comment) and that is,
_obviously_ , not the point. The idea is to allow user to share whatever they
want using the way they want to.

* For people who don't use reader: email it;

* For articles no one has shared: share with note and express your thoughts;

* For items already shared: share and input a comment with your thoughts;

* For things you like but don't have much of an opinion: like it.

It's naïve to blame Google for trying to make one of its services more social,
as this is the way people want it. I'm glad they implemented all those sharing
features. Now I have access to lots of interesting news, and can also share
them easily without all the "emailing" hassle.

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robgough
I'm not really sure why you would _want_ to share what you're reading etc. I
certainly don't care what my friends are reading, why would I expect them to
care what I'm reading.

A setting to turn off all the social features would be lovely!

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DannoHung
I like the sharing items stuff (as long as your friends don't share like, a
dozen items every day) and starring something for later is just an extension
of the GMail capacity.

I could do without the "cool" button though.

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darwinw
I hate the new feature to the core. I don't really care if someone down in new
mexico likes what I'm currently reading. Plus, why do they feel like promoting
the new feature straight in your face (it's just downright annoying). and to
add salt to the wound, i've actually spent a few minutes googling how to
disable it (apparently there's no way you can disable it, easily, yet). so I'm
actually glad people seem to hate it.

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jdbeast00
i haven't read the article or checked my google reader, but I have always
thought that the thing RSS was missing was social capabilities. this is why
sites like yc are such a big hit, there is a need for this on the internet.
RSS + voting for stories is great as far as i'm concerned, just give people
the ability to turn it off if they don't like it.

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mcella
I switched from bloglines to google reader two years ago, greader evolved in
the wrong direction imho, I was expecting a gmail like experience but every
new update adds nothing to usability... is there something new to try that
let's me really focus on my feeds?

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Musashi
It certainly is getting a little silly. But I am glad that there is some added
control on the sharing front.

