Google Reader Leaves the Lab
I’ve tried just about every RSS reader that is known to Mac and I always felt something was missing. One day a friend and co-worker (a Mac genius on all fronts) tipped me off to Google Reader and I knew it was love at first sight.
I woke up yesterday morning to some really interesting news from the guys at Google. After a somewhat fuzzy post title, an article jubilantly proclaimed a pinnacle in the products history. Google Reader has left the lab!
I knew that Google had just rolled out a new update, with search box, and a few other hidden tweaks, but I didn’t realize that this would be the end of lab cylce of my favorite RSS Reader of all time, Google Reader. The web based RSS aggregator allows me to access my feeds no matter where I am at, and the mobile version for the iPhone isn’t half bad either.
According to the Official Google Reader Blog’s Nick Baum, the team feels like they have accomplished all that they can accomplish with the current Google Reader in the lab. The product is now ready to become an official tool from Google, along side all of its other great products.
We don’t know how to tell you this, but it’s time that we break up. It’s just that we’re different now. People can search. They can share what they read. They can even see trends about what they read, and how often they do it. There are all sorts of things we could do in the future to make feed reading awesome. And that means you just can’t be around anymore.
Oh, do not worry, Google Reader isn’t going away, it’s only going to get better, at least we can hope. Google Reader has come a long way from its conception in the lab. I remember when Gears, another Lab project, decided to build a plug-in for Reader. It took my favorite online RSS reader and made it robust enough for offline use. When the gears project rolled out, it sealed a place on my must have apps for Mac list. It also filled the void in the search for a dynamic RSS reader.
Now that it has fully matured you should consider checking out Google Reader for your RSS feed reading. If you want it to have a more OS X feel to it, I suggest downloading FireFox’s Stylish plugin and downloading the Google Reader OS X APP Style from HicksDesign.
I used to write for this site and I stopped for a variety of reasons. I still subscribe to the RSS feed and when this came up I just couldn’t hold it in any longer. Does anyone edit these posts?
“It wasn’t until a good friend and co-worker, a Mac genius on all fronts, tipped me off to Google Reader.”
It wasn’t until a good friend tipped you off that what? This isn’t even a complete sentence.
The phrase “Mac genius on all fronts” is meaningless. You can’t just combine cliches and hope that it turns into good writing.
If you’re going to provide mediocre, uninsightful content, at least make sure it’s grammatically correct and thoroughly edited. I guess MacApper is still in its lab cylce (sic).
@Keenan: Thanks for dropping in! Completely an editorial error on my part - my bad, although I left the cliche ‘Mac genius on all fronts’ because well, technically that could be possible. Anyways look how fast I fixed it up, surely that counts for something
Anyways I think the reason we queued this story up is because A) so many Mac users seem to like Google’s Reader but more so B) to highlight some of the free addons to add the Mac like feel to the app.
Google Reader looks pretty neat. I haven’t tried it out since it was first introduced a while back. I think I’ll take a second look. I’m a big fan of NewsFire though…
I really enjoy Vienna, and don’t even entertain the idea of using anything browser based. Before discovering the bliss of Vienna, I didn’t even use an RSS reader, since I found them all to be either too poor or too bloated.
http://www.opencommunity.co.uk/vienna2.php
Perhaps others will like it as well, or find bliss in the new Google Reader.
what keeps me at bloglines is that i feel google knows enough about me already and if i now let them know what feeds i subscribe to and what which articles i read, they’ll know just a bit too much in my eyes.
long live Google Reader! YAY! I’ve been using GReader for months now and been loving it since, simply because I can access it from anywhere. I’m going to try Vienna portable though. Any comparison?
I prefer to use the NetNewsWire Lite Beta (nnwbeta.com) for free, that syncs with newsgator.com. I can then get a great RSS reader on my Mac, a great iPhone version, and a great web version. Newsgator + NNW Lite Beta = Life.