Top 5 Needed Features & Fixes For Google Reader

By Curtiss Thompson · Posted on February 7, 2007

Google Reader is a great webware RSS feed aggregator, but it isn’t without its fair share of flaws.

  1. Search: ability to search through your feeds like you can in Gmail. The fact there are two methods currently available to add a search feature to Google Reader should be justification enough for the demand for such a feature.
  2. Same Story Consolidation: Google News does this, it would be a natural addition to Google Reader in order to root out redundancy amongst your RSS feeds.
  3. New Story Notifications: Many software based RSS aggregators allow for pop-up notifications to alert their user to news that was just published. Why couldn’t Google Reader do the same thing with their webware based RSS aggregator much in the way they do in Gmail with Gtalk IM notifications (though this would certainly require the ability of user customization). Furthermore many users want to see the integration of the Gmail and Google Reader services, as there are also two methods created to combine these two great services together. It would also seem a logical enough of a move for Google to create standalone Greader software application that does the same thing, but has the benefits that come with a software application.
  4. Aggregation Speed Increase: Google Reader has issues with speed when it comes to delivering your content to you via RSS. Often there can be a regular 1 to 2 hour delay in receiving your content via RSS, from when it is actually published.
  5. Solve Overflow Memory Leak Problems: The ability to auto-refresh or just manually refresh your RSS feeds in Google Reader is a great feature, but the downside is you will find all those feeds build up in your session, and if your running Firefox, this can cause some serious memory leaks, if you use it frequently.

The application of these 5 features and fixes for Google Reader could make it formidable contender in the RSS reader market.

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Topics: Opinion

14 people thinks stuff!

  1. I just wish there was a way to increase the amount of time in the day so I could get around to doing more. Including reading more feeds.

    D

    By David Krug on February 7, 2007 9:53 pm

  2. [...] Thompson has a great post on the fixes and features he’d like to see added to Google Reader. One big one - and I [...]

    By Blog Mirrors » RSS Readers Need De-Duping on February 8, 2007 10:18 am

  3. [...] lees ik een post op 901am die ingaat op de vijf meest gewenste verbeteringen aan Google Reader. En wat valt er te lezen bij [...]

    By MarcNext » Blog Archive » De slimme feedreader is in aantocht on February 8, 2007 11:48 am

  4. I just visit http://www.originalsignal.com

    clean and mean…

    By Mafisto on February 8, 2007 2:09 pm

  5. [...] 901am lists some great advice to Google on how to improve their reader. From the 5 recommended features, my favorite is same story consolidation. I can absorb so much more if related items are grouped together. Go check out the list and let me know what your favorite feature would be. [...]

    By A few more things about RSS: Week in Review, Google Reader » SOJo: Student of Online Journalism on February 8, 2007 5:45 pm

  6. I would love to see Google Reader incorporate Google Translate into individual feeds so that I could read feeds from foreign language sources.

    By Timothy Post on February 8, 2007 7:55 pm

  7. [...] Rubel has pointed to a post by Curtiss Thompson on his Google Reader wishlist…the issue Steve is highlighting is collapsing similar [...]

    By Library clips :: Google Reader needs clustering and more :: February :: 2007 on February 8, 2007 10:18 pm

  8. If you missed MarcNext’s trackback in Dutch above, and if you’ll forgive the gratuitous self-promotion, I recently launched a new RSS reader called Feedeye that does same story consolidation. No other online RSS reader supports this AFAIK, though admittedly I’ve skimped on the other features you list ;-)
    For an example, see http://feedeye.com/azza-bazoo/world

    By Hourann Bosci on February 8, 2007 10:18 pm

  9. [...] Thompson har satt samman sin önskelista på Google Reader-finesser: 1. Sök. 2. Samma-nyhet-en-gång1 3. Notifiering om att det finns ny [...]

    By Beta Alfa » Hej det är fredag on February 8, 2007 11:35 pm

  10. [...] Thompson has a great post on the fixes and features he’d like to see added to Google Reader. One big one - and I [...]

    By RSS Readers Need De-Duping | Internet Marketing Blog on February 14, 2007 3:07 pm

  11. [...] computer, but they too have some things that could be fixed. A few weeks back I remember reading an article by Curtiss discussing the five things that Google still needs to fix/implement in Google Reader so that it is [...]

    By NewsGator Online RSS Reader Gets A Little Better - CyberNet News on February 28, 2007 1:02 pm

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  14. [...] for the tip Curtiss and [...]

    By Google Reader Gets Search Box! - CyberNet News on September 6, 2007 11:03 am

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