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Google Technology

Google Reader's Social Features Merging With Google+ 100

Posted by samzenpus from the we-fear-change dept.
MrSeb writes "Moments ago, Google announced that Reader, as soon as next week, will be moving closer to Google+. Many of its social features (friending, following, sharing) are being buried in favor of Google+ equivalents. Fortunately, Reader has always had the ability to export your RSS subscriptions and feed groups in the widely-accepted OPML format, and over the next few days this will be expanded to include your shared items, friends, likes, and starred items as well." Update: 10/21 01:15 GMT by S : Updated headline and summary to reflect that Reader will be sticking around as a standalone product. According to Google, only its social features are being merged.
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Google Reader's Social Features Merging With Google+ More

Google Reader's Social Features Merging With Google+

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  • I am not sure that's a good or a bad thing!

    • Good if you like Google+. Bad if you like people trying to shove Google+ down your throat by taking something you depended on and making it not work without Google+. It's like saying you can't use Windows without installing Internet Explorer.
      • just bad altogether. Even if you are ok w/ G+ the reader is now useless. I'm usually not one of those folks that cries out loud everytime Facebook changes something. But I really use Reader all the time everyday and they've F'd up the navigation and usability so much. At first glance it looked like an improvement. But after trying to use it I have to just find another product.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Tharsman ( 1364603 )

      Well for me its all bad.

      For one, i refuse to get a Google+ account, so if I'm forced to do this, I wont use reader anymore.

      Second, my job blocks all social networking sites. Even if I wanted to make a concession in the sake of Reader, I wont be able to use it at work since it will be blocked. This also means every single employee of my company (huge international company) wont be using Reader during work hours anymore.

      Guess it's time for me to find RSS software that can cross-platform sync via Dropbox. Heck

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by icebike ( 68054 )

        Well for me its all bad. For one, i refuse to get a Google+ account, so if I'm forced to do this, I wont use reader anymore.

        I'm of the Same opinion. I never used the social aspects of Google Reader anyway, but I use the Reader part all the time.
        If that breaks, I'm off to any one of dozen other feed aggregators.

        But the revised summary indicates Reader will stay around, and without that social layer on top it will actually serve its intended purpose better.

        • Back to bloglines ? I migrated away when they were closing down, and after their reopening never went back.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jaymz666 ( 34050 )

        quite a valid point, however, do they state whether the URLs are going to change, or if the only real difference is the addition of sharing to Google+ instead of the weird mini social network that you currently share items to. Same with likes. And a redesign.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by emarkp ( 67813 )

        Yep, same for me. This will end reader for me as well. I guess I'll have to start moving over to a different aggregator. Sigh.

  • Wrong summary (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20, 2011 @07:33PM (#37785852)

    From the first comment in the linked article:

    "To clarify, Google Reader remains a stand-alone product. What is being announced is threefold: 1) Addition of sharing to Google+. 2) A new modern design. 3) Retiring of the dedicated sharing model.

    This statement ( It will be impossible to use Google Reader as a standalone product) is incorrect. You can continue reading your feeds in Reader independent of Google+."

    • So... the whole summary was a bust.

      Cause otherwise it's an article about google swapping out the old buzz buttons for +1's. Oh, and the theme change they've done everywhere else.
    • That's good. When Google migrated my email address to a google account, I lost access to some services, including Orkut (who cares?) and Google+, because Google Apps (for domains) doesn't support Google Profiles yet.
      So, there's no way for me to retrieve or access my Google+ account (I created the account there before Google migrated my email).
      It would be a shame if Reader couldn't be accessed without Google+.

      • Sigh, is using the Internet REALLY that freaking hard?

        Google informed you of your account conflict the first time you signed in to the website after the change, but you were in too big of a hurry to bother reading the message.

        You also seem to be too lazy to search for yourself which indicates that you don't deserve help in the first place, but ...

        http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=conflicting+accounts [lmgtfy.com]

        Your old account is still there and 100% usable, it just requires that the user have half a clue, so you're probably S

  • Non-social uses not affected (Score:5, Informative)

    by icebraining ( 1313345 ) on Thursday October 20, 2011 @07:35PM (#37785868) Homepage

    Louis Gray (G+ evangelist, hired by Google) said:

    To clarify, Google Reader remains a stand-alone product. What is being announced is threefold: 1) Addition of sharing to Google+. 2) A new modern design. 3) Retiring of the dedicated sharing model.

    This statement ( It will be impossible to use Google Reader as a standalone product) is incorrect. You can continue reading your feeds in Reader independent of Google+.

    http://www.extremetech.com/computing/101011-6-google-reader-replacements#dsq-comment-23863 [extremetech.com]

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by MagicM ( 85041 )

      Exactly. And from here [blogspot.com]:

      And in addition to Google+, you'll still be able to share to almost any service using Send To.

      It sounds like they may give you ways to share to Twitter and Facebook.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jaymz666 ( 34050 )

        reader already does this...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by whoop ( 194 )

        Man, who are you gonna believe. Some joker on Blogspot, where anyone can make an account, or a place named ExtremeTech.com. My underpants moved a little just typing that domain.

        And for everyone with Google Apps accounts that are in panic mode, see this from Dave Girouard [google.com] from Google Apps. It's just "days" away.

  • If this means I can no longer read my RSS feeds in Opera, then I'm off to find another RSS reader. I'd use G+ a lot more if it would work in Opera without having to tell G+ it's Fx or IE

    • What part of G+ doesn't work in Opera? I ask because I've been using Opera this whole time and haven't noticed anything, unless it's something like hangouts that isn't working.

      • I'm running the latest version of Opera on 3 different PCs and get the same thing each time. When I log in, I get "Your browser is no longer supported. Please upgrade your browser" and then links to Chrome, IE, Firefox and Safari. You may have it set to identify as a different browser.

        • Strange, I got that on my Nook, but it hasn't stopped working on Opera.

          Opera/9.80 (X11; Linux x86_64; U; en) Presto/2.9.168 Version/11.51

    • I never had to tell Google+ that Opera is another browser in order to make it work! What problems did you have with it?
  • Great news. I'm a google reader user and that will increase g+ use.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by TechLA ( 2482532 )
      And also useless spam to your circles. I still use Facebook, but I've long time noticed it's not a good place to just put your random stuff. What happens with your life and you personally, yes, but if you want to post random stuff then reddit, forums or even chans are much better for that. You won't frustrate your friends then, either.

    • Not really. For once I did not have to share any personal information with the people who "followed" me - or Google itself for the matter.

      To me, Google Reader's Shared Items was the perfect "social network." This was as much of a "social" interaction as I need: stories and news few close to me people are interested in, probably with their comments. Not between me, my friends, Google and whole shebang of random strangers - but just between me and my friends.

  • Meh (Score:3)

    by spinkham ( 56603 ) on Thursday October 20, 2011 @07:38PM (#37785912)

    As long as it still works as a sync agent for Reeder [reederapp.com] on Mac and iOS, I could care less. Reeder is so much better than the Reader interface anyway.

  • Maybe this means that I will finally be able to remove that one article in my feed that I haven't been able to get to delete for the past three years, no matter what I do.

  • I thought it was just a little box with another copy of the Internet in it...

  • Since Google+ is blocked at work, I will no longer be able to use Google Reader on my lunch hour!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mike ( 1172 )

      Sorry to reply to my own message, but I just found out the synopsis of the article may be wrong. "To clarify, Google Reader remains a stand-alone product."

      Well, at least this is assuming the first commenter "Louis Gray" is correct with his clarification....

  • Reader isn't the only app now forcing G+. I use Latitude to track my travel time and time spent at job sites. In order to save a new location, I am now being forced to use G+. I don't do social net sites, no face, no space. What's up Google? What happened to do no evil? Facebook have too much market cap?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Fuck yeah! Google is the most evil company in technology because they changed a feature of one of their free programs!

  • it's a cool service that google hasn't upgraded in years and the sharing is next to worthless unless you know the person you're sharing with

  • I post things to my Reader feed. I don't have *that* many subscribers, but I'd like to replicate the experience in G+. Namely:

    1. Third parties should be able to subscribe/unsubscribe to my feed
    2. My feed should not be shown to non-subscribers in my G+ circles
    3. I should be able to add stories to my feed with a bookmarklet
    4. People should be able to subscribe to my feed with an RSS reader

    AFAIK, all of this is currently impossible in G+. So... it's a downgrade for the moment.

    • 4. People should be able to subscribe to my feed with an RSS reader

      AFAIK, all of this is currently impossible in G+. So... it's a downgrade for the moment.

      This part is an issue with G+ as a whole, more so than just the reader part. Circles allow me to "push" content out to certain users. They don't allow others to "pull" content. I may post many things to G+, some tech things, some just personal photos and stuff. If you add me to a circle in G+ you get everything I push out to you.

      If they solve that problem, then they can solve your RSS problem above, since yours RSS subscribers can just follow your "RSS" tagged stuff on G+ and put it in their "RSS" circle I

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Orffen ( 1994222 )

        Presumably you want anyone to have access to your RSS feed, so surely just using "Public" would meet the requirement. All people have to do is add you to their circles.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by beej ( 82035 )

          Dumping tech links in Public just spams the 90% of my followers who don't want to see them, so that's not really going to work, I don't think.

  • what (Score:3)

    by macshit ( 157376 ) <[snogglethorpe] [at] [gmail.com]> on Thursday October 20, 2011 @09:15PM (#37786730) Homepage

    Google reader has social features?!

    I use it daily—it's a great RSS reader, and being on the web makes it much handier than standalone apps—but I never even realized it had "social features"... hmm now that I think about it, I guess it does have "like" buttons and that sorta thing...

    But if it does, switching to the Google+ equivalents seems a pretty reasonable move; duplicating this sort of functionality just seems silly. They should probably try to keep them optional though (using the reader without a G+ login would just disable the like buttons etc), to avoid pissing off all the Google+ haters.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by garcia ( 6573 )

      It only makes sense to Google and those who use G+. For those of us who have a G+ account but use it for nothing and want to use it for nothing it makes absolutely no sense.

      Especially to those of us who see G+ as yet another passing fad from Google. I've been using Reader for YEARS. I've had a G+ account for a couple months. Guess which one I haven't visited in a couple months vs the one I haven't visited in the last couple of seconds?

  • To me, this seems to be more of a reaction than anything strategic. It's like Google's high poobahs were sitting around discussing why Google+ is failing, and they all agreed the solution is to force people to use Google+ if at all possible.

    I'm beginning to wonder if they're trying to figure out how to force Gmail users to go through Google+.

  • All I can say is Orwell would be so proud of the language the Chinese used to describe their censorship.
  • Google has many products that no-one has ever heard of. So whether they merge one unheard of app with another unheard of app, isn't really 'stuff that matters' is it?

    • Google has many products that no-one has ever heard of. So whether they merge one unheard of app with another unheard of app, isn't really 'stuff that matters' is it?

      You're saying you have not heard of Google Reader or Google+?

      And you thought that it would be wise to point this out in public? On Slashdot?

      Honestly?

  • This would certainly explain why the Reader link recently disappeared [google.com] from the Gmail navigation bar. I find it really unfortunate that Google decided to string us along for so long, offering alternatives like "use a bookmark." Google has yet to sell me on +, and I am far from convinced that merging Reader into the fold will do much to change that. The time is fast approaching to move to a new RSS reader.

    Aikon-

    • They only moved it to the 'more' as, through watching all it's users, they determined that the other links were more widely used. No problem for me as I have gmail and reader as pinned tabs.

  • So, great that everyone with free account will get these synergies from G+. Google's own customers (Domain Apps) still don't have Google+.

    So, either create a free GMail account (and deal with the crap of having two Google accounts) or move your stuff somewhere else.

  • I wonder how long it will be before the announcement that they are merging blogger and blogspot into google+

  • This is copied from elsewhere. You can already great a custom 'send to' using the following:

    Gear > Reader settings > Send to > Create custom link
    Name: Google+
    URL: https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/confirm?url=$ [google.com]{url}
    Icon URL :https://ssl.gstatic.com/s2/oz/images/favicon.ico

    It enables you to send things from reader to your stream easily. All this announcement really is, is a formalization of the above 'hack'. This is because buzz is dead and instead of sharing there by default, you will now share to pl

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by HotBBQ ( 714130 )
      For Chrome users there is an extension [google.com] that adds a 'Share to Google+' button at the bottom of each post in Reader.
  • As long as Reader is still Readable (usable). They could also merge Buzz and Youtube with G+. For me Youtube is Google's main social network not G+, and would benefit from G+ features.

  • Hmm. I can use Reader from my app account, but still can't use plus, there. I wonder if that's gonna change.

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