i’ve always been puzzled by google reader

March 18th, 2013

1) I was going to post some links to various articles about Google's decision to close down Google Reader, but there were so many and the story has been so widely reported at this point that I won't bother. Suffice it to say that the articles (let alone the comments) have ranged through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, complaining, protesting, and celebrating.

I've felt a little left out of this because I've never been quite clear what Google Reader does (and I guess it isn't worth trying to find out at this point).

It seems to be an RSS client, but I've also got the idea that it can supply RSS feeds as well (which is where I get confused, since in my mind those are two different ends of the process).

What I do understand is RSS feeds, which I think are wonderful, but I'm not sure why people feel that Reader is irreplaceable. I use RSS every day, both with the NewsFox add-on for Firefox and with gReader for Android (which depends on Google Reader now, but the word is that they will find another solution before Google pulls the plug).

So, if you do use Reader, what are you going to do now? There are a variey of other options, unless I'm missing something.


2) I was pleased to see this: "Orson Welles' F For Fake orchestrates a film-length work of cinematic magic." It's nice to see some recognition for one of Welles' great films (which I reviewed here).


3) On a different level of film, I'm very much looking forward to this (NSFW, very). My rational side says that the wonderfulness of the first one can't be duplicated, but this is the time, before a movie comes out, when hope can triumph over sense. That's the magic of movie trailers.


4) In other news, I think the mystery stories will be done even sooner than planned, since I've been working on the last two ("The Mystery of the Other Patient" and "The Mystery of the Quiet People") and I've finally come to realize that they are two halves of the same mystery (or series of mysteries) about the "quiet people."

Which is fine with me, since it solves all the problems I had of how to transition from one to the other (and I never liked the title "The Mystery of the Other Patient" anyway 🙂 ).

Entry Filed under: Movies,Tech Topics

3 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Dunx  |  March 18th, 2013 at 11:53 am

    On Google Reader – I use it because it is in the cloud so I get the same state on all machines, and the Android app is good.

    I think a lot of the anger about its withdrawal is that Google basically created a category killer: Reader drove a number of other cloud-based readers out of business, and now it’s going away.

    Also, totally with you on my hopes for Kick Ass 2. I thought the trailer was less joyous than those for the first one, but still – very much looking forward to seeing this next installment.

  • 2. Stephen A. Watkins  |  March 18th, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    I’ve been using Google Reader for a little while now – I’m a late bloomer, but I’ve been using it for a couple years.

    Mostly, I use it to keep track of blogs I follow – the more blogs I started following, the harder I found it to manage what I’d read, what was new, and so on.

    I had, however, recently run into a limitation of Reader… which is that it seems to have an upper-limit on how far back in the RSS feed an item can be marked as “unread”. As my blog-reading time has dropped precipitously, recently, I’ve fallen way behind on some blogs and, consequently, some of those unread posts have started to drop off my list of unread items.

    This doesn’t make me happy. So I’m hoping whatever alternative I turn to will not have this limitation.

    As for supplying RSS feeds? I’ve never used that capability of Reader. Don’t know anything about it.

  • 3. Anthony Lee Collins  |  March 18th, 2013 at 10:41 pm

    Duncan: I’m always a bit leery of going too far into the cloud. 🙂

    I get requests to log into Chrome so that my bookmarks will travel with me, but I’ve never done it. My main bookmarks are all on a web page on my site that I use wherever I am, so that’s enough for me.

    I do use cloud backup for some of my writing, as I do it, but I have it backed up in other places, too.

    Stephen: If I remember correctly, NewsFox may have the same limitation, but I’m not sure. I haven’t been using gReader for long enough to tell about that.

    As for supplying feeds, I’ve done a tiny bit of research and found out that the Google that supplies feeds is Feedburner (which I use on my own site), which is apparently not related to Reader. Fortunately, as far as I can tell, that’s not going anywhere. So, at least now I know the difference. 🙂

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