Have any other Google Reader users noticed you can no longer “share” items or follow people? Google Reader was updated yesterday, and the share post button is no more. Now we are supposed to +1 or add items on Google+. Here’s a short article about the changes. And here’s an article that thinks it’s a good thing, overall.
Basically, in the old version of Google Reader, you could click on an article to share it with people who signed up to follow you. Then you could comment back and forth with them, all within Reader. When they shared something new, it popped up as an unread item. Now, Google want us to use Google+ to share things. It’s easy enough to hit “share” at the top of the screen to put items on Google+, and within certain “circles” but I no longer get a feed of the things my friends are sharing. I have to go to Google+ and look for it. It was better when it was all in one location.
Image from here
Basically… I had a lot of fun sharing things with my friends on Reader, and now they’ve just made it more difficult. I don’t want to use Google+. It’s not intuitive to me, and gee, I already use Facebook. For awhile Steven and I have been talking about how they should incorporate circles in to Reader, so you can only share with certain groups in Reader. We got it the other way around. Maybe I will get used to it. Or maybe enough people will sign the petition to bring it back that Google will! Doubtful.
This is funny. Just yesterday I was thinking about how much I love gmail, and gcal and gdocs… then they do this stupid crap. Oh well. If this doesn’t make sense, or you don’t care, I am happy you don’t waste as much time on the internet as I do!
I finally felt like I was getting the hang of it and they went and changed it. I suppose I’ll get used to the new look and layout but I will definitely miss the “Share” function! Don’t force me to use yet another social network, please!
Stay away from Google+. I will let you know if there is ever a good reason to sign up. At least now you don’t have to see all the stupid crap I shared in Reader 🙂
I totally agree with you Erin!
I think they’ve got way too much white space around the borders of everything.
I noticed that there were options at the bottom missing but hand’t tried to share anything yet.
Forcing us to use Google+ is not the way to push people to Google+, it pushes us away.
Leave us our old way and put a better way in Google+ to get us to try it (and not be able to live without it).
The white space is really off-setting right now. It is going to take awhile to get used to it.
And yes – let US approach Google+. Of course, if they leave it to us, we never will. Ha!
That is the first thing tha tI said to my husband, I miss sharin with him. I am not a fan of google plus
The new Google Reader took a little getting used to, but I kinda like it now! It’s a lot cleaner-looking. I also just like white space. And a lot of it. 🙂
As for the sharing thing, I had no idea we could do that so it doesn’t really bother me. Not sure I would have used it much if I did know of it anyway. But other people are upset about it, too!
I am sick of google changing things- I liked the old way they were doing things and now it is just ugly and annoying. I didn’t use the share button in google reader but I know a lot of people who did and liked it. I just don’t understand why they had to change something that was already do good!
I liked the old rounded calendar entries (do you use the calendar?). I suppose we will all get used to the new look eventually, but it’s so shocking when they switch!
I don’t have Google+ and I don’t intend to get it any time soon. Facebook is enough for me. I also didn’t really use the share function on reader though so I doubt I would have noticed.
I noticed some changes in the reader, but didn’t realize how much had changed. I do appreciate certain aspects of what google has to offer, but i agree about google + — just not sure I need it with facebook, twitter, dailymile…etc. It’s starting to get really time consuming!
I haven’t watched the video yet, but check out 25 ways to tie a scarf! http://www.stylelushblog.com/2011/10/25-ways-to-tie-a-scarf.html
One of my blogger friends shared this with me! I have been trying a few of the ties. I love this vid!
Glad I’m not the only one who is not loving the new reader. The white space thing makes me feel like stuff is “missing” and I had not realized that the share button was gone until you mentioned it. Bummer 🙁
You know, I think I’m okay with it. I am a pretty basic user of Reader, so they eliminated stuff I didn’t need. But I’m sympathetic to your pain.
I really loved the sharing option. I got to see a lot of cool blogs I wouldn’t otherwise know about through that. Boo! I never go on google + and taking away my sharing isn’t going to make me do that more. I do like the upgrade to the gmail though.
I read about the upcoming changes to Google Reader. The sharing is now all done via Google Plus, which makes some sense, but at the same time, the sharing under Reader was perfect. It will be missed.
The upgrade to Gmail is less invasive and less drastic, but change is hard regardless, especially when there are interface changes.