Why I don’t like the new Google Reader Interface

Goodness, this is becoming a habit. I draft out a page when I get pissed, and don’t publish it. Anyway, here is something that pissed me off this morning, and I am publishing it.

The Culprit : Google Reader‘s new ubercool interface upgrade (Yup, got that right)

The most popular use of Google Reader is to subscribe to RSS feeds, as most of you who use it would know. It integrates neatly into my mobile phone, allowing me to read whatever I want, wherever I want, whenever I want to. Apart from subscribing to RSS feeds and sharing articles that I like, I also use it as a lovely bookmarking service. The ‘Note in Reader’ feature that is subtly present, that most folks miss out on, was a blessing in disguise for me. Prior to ‘discovering’ this feature, I used Instapaper, and once I found it, I realized I didn’t need to have another account with yet another service when I already had service from Google that did it. So there you go – two features that I loved about Google Reader – reading articles and a Read-it-later service.

This morning, when I logged into Google Reader, I noticed that I’d gotten the ‘Upgraded’ interface. Frantically searched for the ‘Notes’ tab and couldn’t find it. Now I have over 60 bookmarks in the notes section, including a few that I couldn’t read yesterday, a few pages that I read once in a while for inspiration, and some quick references. Imagine my state when I couldn’t find it. Among other changes the ‘Share’ button has been replaced with ‘+1′, but the ‘Note’ feature was missing.

I did a little bit of digging within Reader settings, and found that they allowed me to Export my notes as a ‘JSON Activity Stream’ or a ‘Reader JSON’ . The JSON Activity Stream, as per what’s stated, is an industry standard. But now I needed a bookmarking service that would allow me to Import the file. The file is an XML file containing details of the website, and the note. Being curious, I opened the file in a standard text editor, and found contents like this :

{"published":"2011-10-30T15:52:03.572","actor":{"objectType":"person",
"id":"tag:google.com,2005:reader/abcdefghijklmnopqrst","displayName":"GoogleUserName;"},"verb":"noted","object":{"id":"tag:google.com,2005:reader/item/ac6a1d9f8cdcd2b1","url":"http://www.google.com/reader/api/0/stream/items/contents?i\u003dtag:google.com,2005:reader/item/ac6a1d9f8cdcd2b1","content":"\u003cp\u003eOmmwriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, reinvindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration.\u003c/p\u003e",
"displayName":"Welcome - Ommwriter","objectType":"post"}},

Note : Content above edited to protect privacy

Yup, doesn’t make much sense at first glance (but it does if you know what you’re dealing with), and imagine having to deal with over 60 notes like this. Oh well, it isn’t that difficult to understand, but here was the problem – I couldn’t get the link I had bookmarked – in some cases, the URL was present as part of the note, and in others, I couldn’t find it. Gave up.

Next – checked Google Reader on the mobile, and I found that the ‘My Stuff’ tab contained some of the articles I’d bookmarked. Whew, relief. But wait, it didn’t have all of it. Salvaged whatever I could, and went ahead with ‘discovering’ other ways.

Some basic research searching on Google gave me this a reference to this thread – http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/reader/thread?tid=3039452d99060eb4&hl=en which states you can access all your notes using this link – http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/created – That link gives you a list of all your stared items irrespective of what version of Reader you are using. Standard technique of copying and pasting the links works well. I moved all my notes to Read It Later, which has a nice client for a mobile phone as well – but the free version of mobile client can display only 10 bookmarks at a time. I could get the ‘Pro’ version of the client, but I would like to try it out for a while before taking any decisions.

With that little activity, I ended up spending an hour of my time that I’d have otherwise spent doing absolutely nothing. Among other inconveniences, I’d set up my Google Reader account for sharing an article very quickly. I am not sure if I can setup RIL to do the same.

I hope this helps those who have been using Reader’s ‘Note in Reader’ service. Though my mingration is complete, I’d be interested in knowing if you have any other better ways of doing it efficiently.

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