If you want to see how near your friend is to the restaurant you’re meeting up at, you can do that here without needing to send a quick text for an update. If your loved one regularly travels for work and you both like to check in on each other’s progress, it’s a quick and easy way of checking they’re OK. Who wants to be tracked at all times, after all? But using such apps can also be incredibly practical. Sure, it might initially sound unsettling. We’ve rounded up our favorite iOS and Android apps to help you find your pals. That’s not how that’s going to work.When you’re trying to coordinate plans with friends or just find time for plans with them in the first place it can be really useful to keep tabs on each other without constantly texting “Where are you?” back and forth- and that’s where friend-finding apps come into play. You can’t force me into using Google+ by stealing pieces of Google Reader. But Google, if you think I’m going to “Circle” this group in order to continue reading their shares, you’ve got another thing coming. Of course, there were probably only a handful of us really using this feature, so of course, like all those other services Google is shutting down, it’s getting axed too. Not only did my group consistently share the top tech news I’d want to read, they also share those oddball but interesting stories from outside of tech, including humorous cartoons, popular videos, space and science news, parenting tips and other news completely unrelated to tech, but still compelling. It is, and will be up until the day it disappears, one of the most regular and enjoyable news consumption behaviors I engage in every day.Īlthough there are many other services out there that promise to bubble up relevant content based on my interests, the best product I’ve used to date was the human curation of my Google Reader friends. When I’m behind on the day’s news, all I have to do is read TechCrunch, TechMeme and this carefully constructed “human curated” list of shares. But I do enjoy reading the shares from a select group of heavy-duty RSS consumers who are consistently sharing interesting items. I don’t comment much on feeds, or friend and follow dozens of users. To be clear, I don’t really consider or use Google Reader as “social” product like Facebook, Twitter or Google+ (hence the quotes). In other words, proceed carefully or prepare for an earful.Īnd in this particular case, here comes the earful: I’m going to miss the “social” features Google Reader delivers. But for those of us who use Google Reader regularly as a utility – as a place to track, follow, archive and search dozens of sources of information from favorite blogs to company feeds and more – any change to Reader has the equivalent impact as an overhaul of Gmail. For mainstream news consumers, that Google is now streamlining and beautifying this neglected product is probably welcome news. Look, I get that there’s probably only ten of you out there reading this who care much about changes to Google Reader. What really bothers me, however, is Google’s casual decision to remove all of Google Reader’s “social” features, including friending, following and shared link blogs. While I’m not entirely thrilled about this change (I prefer the utilitarian look for the service), I understand Google’s need to maintain user interface consistency across its online products. Most notably, it’s get a fresh new design along the same lines as Google’s other products, like Docs, Maps, Search and Gmail. Today Google announced its long-ignored RSS app Google Reader is getting update.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |