Monthly Archives: November 2006

A second look at Google Reader

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The first time I tried Google Reader (which was when it was first introduced), I found it to be one of the more technically impressive JavaScript applications I’ve seen, as well as one of the least usable.  It seemed that the Google Reader team was far more concerned with pushing the boundaries of Ajax and JavaScript wizardry than they were with building a functional, practical tool.  The good news is that I think they came to the same conclusion, and completely redesigned it.  It’s been some time now since they relaunched Google Reader, but I was so put off by their first version that I didn’t get around to trying the new one until about a month ago.  I’m happy to report that I think Google Reader has grown into an uncommonly good application.

It’s easy to get started using Google Reader, so rather than spending a lot of time reading my conclusions, I recommend that you go draw some of your own.  I would like to briefly point out some of what I consider to be the most compelling features, though:

  • It’s fast.  I think speed has always been Google’s secret sauce.  Speed is not a feature, as far as I’m concerned.  It’s a necessity, and Google has proven that they are the master of responsive web applications.
  • It’s optimized.  The UI, I mean.  Google Reader makes exceptionally good use of the browser window, and a lot of thought obviously went into how the user would interact with the application.  I’m able to take in a great deal of information at a glance, and easily uncover more information with a minimal number of clicks.
  • It’s focused.  Although Google Read is actually pretty feature-rich (it supports tons of keyboard accelerators, you can add bookmarks to your toolbar which automatically navigate through your new posts, and you can read your feeds on a mobile device), the features stay out of your way until you want them.
  • Sharing.  My favorite feature of Google Reader is sharing.  When you share a post, it adds it to your shared list which basically auto-generates a link blog.  Very slick.  I’ve just started using this feature, so I haven’t shared much content yet, but I think this concept has a lot of potential.  (If you’re interested in what I find interesting, you can find my shared posts here.)

I’ve done a lot of work with RSS and blog aggregation over the last few years (I wrote the Adobe XML News Aggregator, News Brew, and the open source ActionScript 3 RSS/Atom libraries), so I feel like I have a special appreciation for when RSS aggregation is done well, and I think Google has certainly gotten it right. What do you think of Google Reader?  If you’re not using it, what’s your aggregator of choice?

Using a mobile phone for real-time price comparisons

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I’ve had phones and/or PDAs with internet connections and mobile browsers for about seven years now, however I’ve never found the ability to surf the web on a mobile device to be particularly useful. I’ve never had a device with enough bandwidth or screen real estate to make the experience bearable. Every now and then, I’ll look up a restaurant’s phone number while I’m out so I can make reservations or order take out, or if I’m insanely curious about something, I might look it up using wapedia, but for the most part, I use the data capabilities of my phone far more for IM and email than for browsing the web.

That said, I was at the San Francisco International Auto Show yesterday with my family, and was reminded of the value of mobile price checking. My kids came across something called a Wiggle Car that they instantly fell in love with, and since Christmas is coming up, my wife and I decided to buy a couple and smuggle them out to the car to be gifts from Santa. The price was a little steep, though, and since I’d never even heard of a Wiggle Car before, I had no way of knowing what they were worth. While my kids test drove Wiggle Cars and my wife distracted the salesman, I used T-Mobile’s EDGE network and my Sidekick 3 to do a little research. Since T-Mobile’s EDGE network is so slow and/or the Sidekick 3’s browser takes so long to render content (I suspect a little of both), it took about 10 minutes for me to come up with what I thought was a fair price. Since it was the last day of the auto show, and since we were buying two, I actually negotiated an even better price, and now have two Wiggle Cars stashed down in my garage waiting for Christmas morning.

My phone gives me reasonable price comparison tools, however there are some better options there. I used to use an application called Piranha Pricecheck on my Sidekick 2, although it doesn’t seem to be available anymore for the Sidekick 3. It’s a Java based mobile application for comparing prices and reading reviews from Amazon. It looks like it should run on most Java-enabled phones. Once I replace my Sidekick 3 (I’m working on that), I will probably start using it again.

I’ve used wishradar’s mobile price comparison service which works well, but it’s hard to use from my Sidekick because the email service is so slow (not WishRadar’s fault — another strike against the Sidekick). I’ve actually had very good luck with Google’s SMS price checking service,which is nice because it’s much faster than trying to use your phone’s web browser. I also came across a TechCrunch article comparing three SMS price comparison services, but I haven’t had a chance to test any of them out for myself yet (though I’m certain I will this holiday season).

If you have any useful tips on mobile price comparison, any services and/or techniques you like or dislike, or any good mobile price comparison stories, please share below.