Gregory's ServerWhat was so special about Google Reader?
 3 comments
@tychi thank you! While I find nothing particularly special in this way of adding of feeds (isn't it like that everywhere), the customizable interface sounds fun. @bouncepaw it was hosted online, instead of a local program, so your "read state" was always in sync no matter which device you used it from. it could also handle a ton of feeds and was always up-to-date whenever you loaded it, instead of needing a 30-60 second "syncing..." phase when you started up your local reader app |
@bouncepaw the ui to add a feed was simple: paste a url
the interface itself was like a construct your own newspaper, which at the time was customizing your own personal homepage. and since this was before ad proliferation, people shared the full content of their blogs, so user styles counted.
all this to say, google reader was mostly good because it was a product of the times and even if all the technical pieces magically fell back in place today, socially, web publishing is different.