Usability: Google Reader
I started writing this on 24th May.
Google Reader (GR) is a web based application where one can subscribe to RSS feeds. It has a typical Google interface (tagging et al). GR displays one blog entry per line in the content section, pretty much like an email client. Upon clicking the line, the blog opens a inline discosure component, which contains the summary of the blog or the entire blog depending on the way the RSS feed has been setup.
At one time the blogs lines that fit in the browser page are loaded, and then as one scrolls down, the remaining blogs get loaded. The cool feature is that the detailed content is also loaded along with the blog, and stored at the browser. I like to scroll down some 5-6 pages and then disconnect the internet. After that I can spend time reading the complete blog or the summary offline. The trick is not to click "Sign out". Now this may not be a big deal in the US where most of us pay a monthly subscription for the Internet. But at my place in India, internet connection charges re on a per hour basis.
However in late May, I saw a link about Offline reading appear in GR, which was further talked about at Google Developer day . The official description was as follows.
Set up Google Reader for offline use: This feature enables you to read your 2000 most recent items even when your computer is not connected to the internet. To use the offline features of Google Reader, you will first need to install the Google Gears plug-in for your browser. Here is the Official word.
Offline web usage is a topic of bigger discussion. However I think the offline mode is perfect for a mainly download-only content that Google Reader dishes out. Its great for a laptop user in India since he/she spends more time being offline than online. However the moment one tries to do too much with the offline mode, it would become over-complicated (issues include syncing, simultaneous editing etc).
Google Reader (GR) is a web based application where one can subscribe to RSS feeds. It has a typical Google interface (tagging et al). GR displays one blog entry per line in the content section, pretty much like an email client. Upon clicking the line, the blog opens a inline discosure component, which contains the summary of the blog or the entire blog depending on the way the RSS feed has been setup.
At one time the blogs lines that fit in the browser page are loaded, and then as one scrolls down, the remaining blogs get loaded. The cool feature is that the detailed content is also loaded along with the blog, and stored at the browser. I like to scroll down some 5-6 pages and then disconnect the internet. After that I can spend time reading the complete blog or the summary offline. The trick is not to click "Sign out". Now this may not be a big deal in the US where most of us pay a monthly subscription for the Internet. But at my place in India, internet connection charges re on a per hour basis.
However in late May, I saw a link about Offline reading appear in GR, which was further talked about at Google Developer day . The official description was as follows.
Set up Google Reader for offline use: This feature enables you to read your 2000 most recent items even when your computer is not connected to the internet. To use the offline features of Google Reader, you will first need to install the Google Gears plug-in for your browser. Here is the Official word.
Offline web usage is a topic of bigger discussion. However I think the offline mode is perfect for a mainly download-only content that Google Reader dishes out. Its great for a laptop user in India since he/she spends more time being offline than online. However the moment one tries to do too much with the offline mode, it would become over-complicated (issues include syncing, simultaneous editing etc).
posted by Mohit Gupta at 1:05 AM
2 Comments:
Great detailed review of GR and its latest Gear feature of offline usages. I've been using Gear myself since the beginning and have noticed that it does not download images (at least by default). Images are shown simply as a grey box.
Know of anyway to configure that in Gear so it'll download the images too?
I guess it's probably for good reason as if the feed has embedded videos, it would not be reasonable by default to download all those as well...
I also forgot to mention that I liked you method of implementing your own offline mode before Gear came into the picture.
That's a pretty clever idea =)
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