I tried the new Google RSS reader and I'm not impressed; I don't even like it. It drives me crazy when things that should be simple are made complex. Simple is good.
I started by exporting my Bloglines feeds to OPML. I then imported my feeds in OPML into the Google RSS reader. So far so good. I quickly noticed that loading takes forever… Maybe there were another couple of million users loading their OPMLs at the same time. Then I unintentionally interrupted the load (I clicked on an hyperlink and it opened the new page on the same browser tab where the Goggle reader was loading). Bummer. So I tried reloading the OPML again. For some reason, Goggle reader thinks I have 52 feeds when it fact there are hundreds of them. Not sure if this issue has to do with me interrupting the load process, or the fact the reader is not handling groupings well…
About the user interface… It is non-intuitive, and hard to use in my opinion, and ugly! I like simplicity. Bloglines is simplicity. Why make it complex when it doesn't have to? Using AJAX doesn't mean the end result will be good. Keep It Stupid Simple!
I typically like Google products; they have been simple to use and well thought, but the Google RSS reader, Hm… I'm not sure what happened there… I am looking forward to “Google RSS Reader Take Two”… In the meantime, Bloglines rule.
While I am not impressed with Google's RSS reader, Google's new Personalized Home I do like… If you haven't seen it yet, go to Google's main page (www.google.com) and click on the Personalized Home hyperlink on the top right corner. The personalized home is simple to use, and is useful.
ceo