Google Reader Redesign Makes No Sense
November 01, 2011I use Reader a lot to keep up with everything I find interesting. After the redesign, I can't but help wonder if it was redesigned by people who don't read.
Despite all the intense interview processes at Google and the idea that everyone hired there is a genius you have to wonder if common sense is a hire point.
Google Reader is about reading and sharing rapidly. Any redesign that fails those basic ideas should be drop kicked into the nearest virtual waste bin. I can just imagine what Steve Jobs would have said had this been at Apple.
I can't really say much more than what Brian said in his rant, given that he knows the product (and the culture) so intimately. I just know the new Reader is clumsy, ugly and braindead. Maybe RSS is less popular that Twitter but it still matters and the old Reader worked well.
Even the look and feel is crappy - is there anyone at Google in charge of ensuring quality look and feel in all their products? Maybe not. There is something to say about a larger than life dictator who revels in the little details that make things great for the customer.
At this rate Google may be on the way to becoming the Yahoo of the new Millennium.