Open Source, Open Blog

Google Reader, You Suck

Jan26
2008 Written by devnet

UPDATE:  Google Reader has changed their behavior as of late.  This post no longer applies as the behavior I wanted has been integrated.  Thanks for reading Google! :)

When I’m not using BlogBridge (that is, when I’m checking my feeds from someone elses computer) I check via Google Reader. It’s been quite nice for me to check out what’s happening in the world of Linux while away from my standard feed reading environment.

Recently though, they have changed the default behavior. Now when I want to mark an entire feed read (feeds with a large number of unread feeds), an annoying confirmation dialog box pops up and I have to confirm that I truly do want to mark all of my feeds as read (in true Microsoftian-esque style mind you).

Whoever enabled this needs to be sentenced to a life of annoying popup dialog boxes. Make their primary desktop be Vista and make them turn on the UAC and make them do their normal job. Sentence them to an entire year of stupid annoying popups. I despise popup dialogs…the demon brain children of the department of redundancy department… (a department google must now have created…and here I thought Microsoft was the only company that had one of these!) more than anything in computing.

Please google reader, take out that stupid dialog! Or at least give us a checkbox option. This type of behavior is frustrating, redundant, and lame.  I cry suckage google reader >:|

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Posted in Rants - Tagged , , , ,
  • http://blogs.howtogeek.com/jatecblog Jake

    For me, this was a complete life saver. I use Google Reader for almost everything (except a few feeds on my Google homepage). I have accidently hit Mark all as Read instead of Refresh so many times it isn’t funny, and I prefer to have my continuous reading loop. I end up missing tons of great articles because of this.

    Each to his own I guess.

  • Bob

    I had the popup too a couple of times, but now it seems to be gone! Good riddance!! :-)

  • xabbott

    “Microsoftian-esque style mind you”
    Yea, no other OS or software ask the user to confirm any actions. Way to sound like a tool.

    BTW for the sake of accuracy. This dialog only happens with an extremely large number of entries being marked as read. I’m sure that is still far too Microsoftian for you though.

  • http://linux-blog.org devnet

    Sorry that I intruded into YOUR internet with my personal blog there Xabbott. I’ll try to conform to your idea of what language should be and make sure that my opinion never generalizes again. I profusely apologize that I made up a word and then generalized specifically to vista which, when released, caught a flurry of backlash about the number of confirmation dialog boxes. I didn’t mean to draw comparison to this fact…I was totally ignorant to other software companies…especially since I work for a software engineering company. Thanks for clearing that up and thank you for the tact you used in bringing this to my attention.

    As always, thanks for making sure to take my opinion on my own personal blog VERY serious and lashing out at it. It’s always good to know that we can live in a society where everyone’s thoughts are dismissed immediately when they are found to be ignorant in an alternative view.

    BTW, for the sake of accuracy, I mentioned the fact that this happens only with a large number of entries in the post…though I did put it in parenthesis. Next time, I will attempt to make a pop-up dialog confirmation for you so that you are sure to get the message ;)

    I’ll try to work out an added check for all my blog posts to come to you first for approval in the future…I wouldn’t want to get called a tool again. Just my way of making sure that my ignorance is kept at a tolerable level.

  • Silver Knight

    ROFLMAO! After reading a few of the posts on your blog (and the associated comment threads) I’m startin’ to really like your attitude, devnet. I’ve only recently subscribed, but this blog might just have to find it’s way higher in my RSS feed priority list. ;)

    Good for you for hanging on to ownership of your blog with both hands in a white-knuckled death-grip.

    Your blog, your opinion, if folks don’t like it, they can just get bent… :P

  • xabbott

    I’m sorry, calling it Microsoftian-esque is still just dumb.

  • http://linux-blog.org devnet

    It’s a good thing it’s my blog eh? That way, I can call it what I want :) You can skip that when you read it as to not twist your underclothes into a knot.

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