by Andy Brudtkuhl on August 30, 2009
Last month I wrote about how Google Reader changed how I consume information again. Prior to that announcement I had been using Feedly solely – as a “front end” to Google Reader. Feedly has once again been added into my daily rotation – because they have integrated the friends and comments features of Google Reader. This has made for a FriendFeed-like experience.
If you are not familiar with Feedly – it is a Firefox extension that acts as an interface with Google Reader.
Feedly weaves the content of your favorite sites and services into a magazine-like start page.
I like Feedly because it gives a sense of organization to an otherwise unwieldy stream of information that is Google Reader. If you are wondering why the addition of Friends and Comments is important, read this Google Reader post. Basically the friends feature creates a human powered filter for me to consume information.
Google Reader has made tremendous progress on the social aspects over the last months: profile, user search, asymmetric follow, comments, friends and comments view. We wanted to make sure that people who use feedly as a Google Reader client were able to take advantage of all these new features. As part of feedly 2.x.009, we are pushing out a new friends/comments page.
via Support for Google Reader Friends and Comments
by Andy Brudtkuhl on August 27, 2009
Today Google Reader added “Featured Reading Lists”.
These lists have been created by high profile bloggers. The idea is to offer up a list of what these A-Listers read.
Where do Arianna Huffington and Thomas Friedman go to get different perspectives on the news? Which economics sites does Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman read? What sites and blogs do the editors of Lifehacker, Boing Boing and Kottke read?
These questions have always interested us, so we decided to approach leaders across a variety of fields and ask them what they read online. We got lots of great responses, which we’ve collected into our second edition of Power Readers. In this edition, we’ve expanded from Power Readers in Politics to include journalists, techies, fashion critics, foodies, and more. We hope this will be a good place for you to find more great things to read, whether you’re new to Google Reader or already have an extensive reading list.
Will this do for these blogs what the Twitter Suggested User List Did?
by Andy Brudtkuhl on October 26, 2008
Over the last few weeks I (and thousands others) have experienced a volatile experience from once-loved (before Google bought them) FeedBurner. Subscriber counts have been going up one hundred one day, down twenty the next. Some days stats do not function. Users have started to bail in masses and complaining via blogs.
Louis Gray posted his frustrations:
It’s alarming for some that a product that has become infrastructure and is expected to have 100% uptime continues to have such gaps and flaws. Losing one’s statistics for a day is essentially meaningless, but it really makes you wonder what’s going on over there. – Louis Gray
Similar frustrations are popping up on Twitter. The guys at Microblink said, “We actively made a decision NOT to use FeedBurner for Microblink’s feeds. WordPress actually has great RSS structure built in.”
This is true – syndication in platforms has gotten significantly better since FeedBurner started. But, without a significant competitor in the space – I think someone can come in a sweep the market out from under their feet. This is a great opportunity for a product to build off what FeedBurner is good at and take the market by storm while thousands of FeedBurner users flock from the service.
If this is your company – we’d like to talk to you so leave us a comment here.
by Andy Brudtkuhl on July 10, 2008
A couple of updates for the website. I’ve added the Daily Digest feature and RSS feed. If you don’t want to read what I have to say – you can read what I am reading. You can read it here and in RSS feed form here. Secondly I’ve added the Social page – which is basically my FriendFeed widget. More to come with this section.
Oh, and if you have an internet business, web development, or web strategy question – don’t forget to Ask Andy…
