Google Reader - quite a nifty blogaholic tool

I followed a prompt in Blogger's Dashboard (central console in Blogger for bloggers) to find out more about Google's new 'Reader'. When I read that it was a new way to view all the blogs that you subscribe to in one place I wasn't too excited. A short introductory video clip explained that the idea was to be able to read blog postings, from blogs that you subscribe to, in a similar way that you would your e-mail. That is instead of going to check on Peter, Sue and Dick's blog sites to see whether they've posted, or on each blog's newsfeed, you can slimpy open your Google Reader.

My skepticism aside, I decided to give it a try. It works pretty well. You have account folders similar to those in your favourite e-mail client, i.e. one for each of the blogs that you follow. You can also move blog folders into subdirectories. In similar fashion to an e-mail reading client a blog folder that contains a new posting will appear in bold with inverted commas showing the number of new unread postings. Thus you can pick up on new posts, literarally with a single glance The default setting is for postings within folders to be sorted from the most recent to the oldest, which makes sense to me.

You can read the full post in your Reader, which once again makes sense, or you can go to the posts' original web page with a single click. The only exception is where a blog only provides a introductory paragraph with a 'read more' link for the rest of the post. In such a case you have to read the 'more' (rest of the post) in its original location. Perhaps something to remember for bloggers who want to force readers to read posts in their original context...

Posts within a blog folder can be viewed in either 'list view' or 'expanded view'. In list view you can expand a selected post with a single click and collapse it likewise.

In keeping with the community and sharing nature of the contemporary internet, you have the ability to 'share' selected posts with friends or netizens in general. A further extension of this feature is that bloggers can create an object on their blog sites to show a pre-selected number of posts from their shared folder in their own Google Reader account. This feature being just another inovative way to emply news feeder technology. I've added such an object to the menu on this blog (see 'Favourite recent posts by others' below 'Blog archive' on the right). You don't have much control over how it is presented but can at least select font type, font colour and the number of items to show.

In certain respects Google Reader still has a 'beta' feel to it. I don't know exactly how Google classifies it's projects but the full name for the new product is "Google Reader Labs", perhaps an indication that it is still under pre-release development. I've also had a look on Google's main site under 'more' and could not find Google Reader listed there before. However, after writing this paragraph I went back to Google > more > Labs and then found Google Reader as a new project close to the top... It is indeed a pre-release product not listed in its own right in the root menu of Google/more.

I'm mostly impressed by the product, even though I do have one or two gripes with it. For one thing the 'shared items' folder and news feed is automatically sorted according to when you added an item to the shared folder, rather than the date on which the post was originally published. As you move through a favourite blog's posts, beginning with the most recent at the top you may decide to activate 'share' on some postings as you go along. However, in the shared folder the selected posts appear in the exact opposite order as per your sequence of activating share and not the publish dates of the posts. A result of this is that some of the oldest posts I decided to share are now listed in my Google Reader object in this blog, even though there are much, much, more recent ones that I would prefer to show. A visitor to your blog has the option to view all of your shared posts by clicking the 'Read more' link, once again to find the posts listed in the order that you activated share on each - not by publish date.

My other main gripe is that I do like to read posts within the context of the feel of the particular blog, i.e. with layout, colour schemes, etc. in place. In Google Reader basic formatting is retained, but everything appears against a white background and devoid of any of the other links that may appear on the post's web page (links within the post, as well as embedded objects in the post -such as video clips- are retained). I'm afraid this will probably stay as is. It will interfere with Reader's functionality to do it in any other way.

Stripping the blog of its original packaging does beg the question: "What about Google's AdSense?". One of Google's myriad of strategies to increase add revenue is by offering bloggers the option of including a Google advertisement feed, AdSense, in their blogs (rewarding such bloggers for click-throughs). These are (presently) not included in the Google Reader posts... I think the programme's approach is in line with an age old media adage, which very simply states that 'content is king'. But I suspect Google will be dishing up ads with posts in the Reader as well. Reading your favourite posts in Google's own GUI may very well be a very effective strategy to open a backdoor for the company to slip in its ad feeds with blogs which wouldn't otherwise include such feeds... Exactly the same strategy by which ads are displayed together with your friends' e-mails in Gmail. I suspect some bloggers may very well view this as an infringement on intellectual property or freedom of expression (adding to and thus possibly altering their intent with a particular posting or their blog as a whole). Once again, if Google could conquer such sentiments regarding Gmail up to now, they will surely be able to do so in this case as well.

In my opinion Google Reader is going to be one of Google's success stories. It's an innovation that can save you a hell of a lot of time. It centralises content from potentially a vast collection of different sources (news feeds / blogs). As stated above I'm sure it will also include ad feeds, thus making it a sustainable service. Give it a try and let me know what your verdict is.

BBC NEWS: India bloggers angry at net ban

The comments that follow relates to an article on the website of BBC News (online edition) today. The Indian blogging community is up in arms (a lot of Indian bloggers at least...) about the banning of a number of blogs by the Indian government, scroll down for excerpts and a link to the story.

I'm an avid reader of Time Magazine. It offers a limited amount of reading per issue, as opposed to some of its more weighty competitors, but tends to have interesting features in manageable portions. The first issue of July featured India. It had some really interesting comments in regard to the country's entrepreneurial spirit. Having noticed the article below on today's BBC News online edition, two elements of Time's feature comes to mind.

Time noted that much of India's economic boom is due to the entrepreneurial spirit of individuals, pursuing opportunities brought about by globalization and the internet - regardless of the government not coming to the party. The latter being stated in the context of bureaucracy, poor service delivery and generally poor infrastructure.

The Magazine also noted that India's economy was booming because it is a (the most populous) democracy. Within the unrestricted realms of a democracy, regardless of the government's poor performance, individuals have the opportunity to excel - only requiring drive, innovation and skills. Time contrasts India with China more than once, with the editorial staff's American bias for the former -because of its democratic nature- coming through quite strongly. It is argued that ultimately the Indian model is more viable, by virtue of being based on the freedom entailed in a democracy. In the long run it has to outperform the centrist, restricted and top-down Chinese model.

Although Time's coverage is peppered (or spiced?) with a good dose of American idealism, it does ring true. Especially if you prescribe to democratic values... It has to be said that major failures / challenges in Indian society (poverty, Aids, etc.) is not glossed over by the feature. Time also points out that the success of India's IT industry has lead to an increase in wages, moving some of India's IT giants to, ironically, look towards outsourcing some functions (read jobs).

Having read the above mentioned feature and having been quite impressed by India's promising future, the BBC article below comes as a bit of a disappointment. It could easily be blown out of proportion, I know. However, it is a worrying development. Freedom of speech should ideally have no barriers. Never mind how many people are offended by the contents of a particular blog. One can only hope that this is a trend that will die in its infancy and not be allowed to mature. The seemingly strong response from India's blogging community is a good start. I hope India will not start copying the bad habits of its nemesis China. Then who will the West bet on as its favoured emerging super power...?

(This story provide interesting similarities with an issue on which I blogged earlier this month, under the caption Citizens, bloggers & the 'Fourth Estate')

BBC NEWS South Asia India bloggers angry at net ban: "India's burgeoning blogging community is up in arms against a government directive that they say has led to the blocking of their web logs.

The country's 153 internet service providers (ISP) have blocked 17 websites since last week on federal government orders.

Some of these sites belong to Google's Blogspot, a leading international web log hosting service.

Indian bloggers say that the decision is an attack on freedom of speech...

...A federal government notification of July 2003 says it can ban websites in the interest of:

• sovereignty or integrity of India
• security of the state
• friendly relations with foreign states and public order
• preventing incitement to commissioning of any cognisable offences.

The sites that have been banned include ones with right-wing Hindu links and an anti-Communist one. At least four of them are on the Blogspot hosting service."