Google Reader has implemented search. Now what next?
Google Reader has implemented search. Now what next?
This is my take on what next five 'killer' new features should be implemented on the Reader:
1) Make it so we can create a folder in the left-hand pane that displays all items that have a combination of two or more tags, not only one of them.
Current folders only display items that have one given tag. Making it possible to create folders that display subscriptions that have a specific combination of tags, will allow us to intersect our view of news items between all our tags, and find niche items much faster. This combined with prolific tagging can be a blessing for people that subscribe to many feeds.
2) Stop creating folders automatically to all tags that we apply to any subscribed feed.
See above. This acts like an inhibiter to prolific tagging, which is good for deeply specifying our sources of information, not at all something to inhibit. Once we should be able to have folders that display a combination of multiple tags, we should also be able to remove the folders that view a sole tag, WITHOUT having to untag all subscriptions that were tagged that way. Let the tagging be the cloud of data, while the hierarchic structure of folders provide the organization of all data views that are interesting to the user, and ONLY THOSE views.
3) Allow for “saved searches” feature.
For saving raw text searches as folders when mere tag combinations of your subscriptions won’t provide a satisfying view of your data.
Furthermore, allowing raw text searches INSIDE a tag combination view would lead to even more powerful results.
4) Integrate Gmail …
….and its ‘filters’ feature into the Reader, merging it with the current ‘tags’ feature. Regular mail could still be quickly separated from RSS news by applying a default ‘mail’ tag to all the items that come from the ‘old’ Gmail. When convenient, mail items could be displayed mixed with RSS news by creating a filter that tags every message that meets a given criteria with the same tag applied to a subscribed feed.
This takes the reader one step closer becoming the global inbox.
5) Google Notebook and the Global Outbox.
Besides being able to reply to your Gmail inside the reader, Google could make it possible to create ‘standalone’ notes in the Reader and tag them accordingly, supplanting the need for a separate notetaking application as Google Notebook. Again, allowing the user to create a hierarchic structure with only the views of notes with a tag or tag combination that actually interest him would be the trick here, because compiling RSS Feeds, Mail and Notes in a single app without providing the means for the user to ignore all the excess of data would be overkill. The user only needs to visualize and organize data that interest him currently. Displaying to the user the ‘long trail’ of all tags once applied, as delicious does, is most of the time irrelevant.
After allowing the user to create his notes, it would be a intuitive idea to create ‘actions’ upon all notes tagged in a given way. So if the user tags a note as ‘myblog’, Google Reader would automatically contact the user’s blog interface, and post the piece automatically. That’s what I’m referring to when I imagine the Reader becoming not only the global inbox, but also the global outbox.
**BONUS FEATURE**
6) Digg killer?
This is not an original idea as it has been already mentioned on tech blogs around the web: the fact is that Google has a potential Digg-killer on its hands. By allowing users to STAR and, in the future, ‘TRASH’ selected news items on the fly, Google could quickly aggregate data on what’s popular on the web on the moment and return that information to its users, making the Reader a living, full-circle, information environment.
This is my take on what next five 'killer' new features should be implemented on the Reader:
1) Make it so we can create a folder in the left-hand pane that displays all items that have a combination of two or more tags, not only one of them.
Current folders only display items that have one given tag. Making it possible to create folders that display subscriptions that have a specific combination of tags, will allow us to intersect our view of news items between all our tags, and find niche items much faster. This combined with prolific tagging can be a blessing for people that subscribe to many feeds.
2) Stop creating folders automatically to all tags that we apply to any subscribed feed.
See above. This acts like an inhibiter to prolific tagging, which is good for deeply specifying our sources of information, not at all something to inhibit. Once we should be able to have folders that display a combination of multiple tags, we should also be able to remove the folders that view a sole tag, WITHOUT having to untag all subscriptions that were tagged that way. Let the tagging be the cloud of data, while the hierarchic structure of folders provide the organization of all data views that are interesting to the user, and ONLY THOSE views.
3) Allow for “saved searches” feature.
For saving raw text searches as folders when mere tag combinations of your subscriptions won’t provide a satisfying view of your data.
Furthermore, allowing raw text searches INSIDE a tag combination view would lead to even more powerful results.
4) Integrate Gmail …
….and its ‘filters’ feature into the Reader, merging it with the current ‘tags’ feature. Regular mail could still be quickly separated from RSS news by applying a default ‘mail’ tag to all the items that come from the ‘old’ Gmail. When convenient, mail items could be displayed mixed with RSS news by creating a filter that tags every message that meets a given criteria with the same tag applied to a subscribed feed.
This takes the reader one step closer becoming the global inbox.
5) Google Notebook and the Global Outbox.
Besides being able to reply to your Gmail inside the reader, Google could make it possible to create ‘standalone’ notes in the Reader and tag them accordingly, supplanting the need for a separate notetaking application as Google Notebook. Again, allowing the user to create a hierarchic structure with only the views of notes with a tag or tag combination that actually interest him would be the trick here, because compiling RSS Feeds, Mail and Notes in a single app without providing the means for the user to ignore all the excess of data would be overkill. The user only needs to visualize and organize data that interest him currently. Displaying to the user the ‘long trail’ of all tags once applied, as delicious does, is most of the time irrelevant.
After allowing the user to create his notes, it would be a intuitive idea to create ‘actions’ upon all notes tagged in a given way. So if the user tags a note as ‘myblog’, Google Reader would automatically contact the user’s blog interface, and post the piece automatically. That’s what I’m referring to when I imagine the Reader becoming not only the global inbox, but also the global outbox.
**BONUS FEATURE**
6) Digg killer?
This is not an original idea as it has been already mentioned on tech blogs around the web: the fact is that Google has a potential Digg-killer on its hands. By allowing users to STAR and, in the future, ‘TRASH’ selected news items on the fly, Google could quickly aggregate data on what’s popular on the web on the moment and return that information to its users, making the Reader a living, full-circle, information environment.
posted by Arcadia at
10:54 PM
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