Comments on: How Google reader can finally start making money http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/ Blog of a thinker, writer and smart-arse Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:03:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Mike Reynolds http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/#comment-69859 Mike Reynolds Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:28:40 +0000 http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/#comment-69859 Hello Elias, Pardon this late response to your post back in October (I just subscribed to your blog). Google is a mass market company and their RSS strategies are meant for the masses, not too different than Yahoo. Thus, their feature development prioritization is meant for the masses. Since your post, Google Reader has started automated recommendations of new feeds. Despite having ~500 feeds, I find their recommendations to be different. Obviously, they have something like pseudo-APML working on the inside. Maybe someday we'll be able to pull out a subset of their data in some way that doesn't reveal their secrets. Google understands relevancy perhaps better than anyone, so they might be the best at defining APML. So by committing more fully to DataPortability and helping people make better use of the entire internet (via APML, OpenID, contacts, profile, etc), this would give people more reasons to be loyal to Google. But I digress. Your post was about Google Reader. One feature I'd like to see is a general keyword filter. One way to make things more relevant is to strip out things we don't want to see. For example, Britney Spears has is not relevant to me, thus I'd like to shut her out. Obviously, APML supports this filtering because it dictates what a person likes and what they dislike. Can Google make money from Google Reader? Is it a profit center? Does it matter? Whatever the answers to these are, I don't ever see Google Reader as being a product for the masses. Rather, someday I see a mass market product where Google gives iGoogle users automated links/stories that could be relevant. Google has a history of thinking along the lines of "we'll just give people what we think they'll like". This is great, but it doesn't give much control to the user. If they were to take a leadership role in DataPortability, they'd give people a reason to be more loyal. They might be worth $175b or $200b, but what goes up, must come down at some point. I think they can sustain their lead quite a while longer if they open up more and give some control to the user. Hello Elias,

Pardon this late response to your post back in October (I just subscribed to your blog).

Google is a mass market company and their RSS strategies are meant for the masses, not too different than Yahoo. Thus, their feature development prioritization is meant for the masses.

Since your post, Google Reader has started automated recommendations of new feeds. Despite having ~500 feeds, I find their recommendations to be different. Obviously, they have something like pseudo-APML working on the inside. Maybe someday we’ll be able to pull out a subset of their data in some way that doesn’t reveal their secrets.

Google understands relevancy perhaps better than anyone, so they might be the best at defining APML. So by committing more fully to DataPortability and helping people make better use of the entire internet (via APML, OpenID, contacts, profile, etc), this would give people more reasons to be loyal to Google.

But I digress. Your post was about Google Reader. One feature I’d like to see is a general keyword filter. One way to make things more relevant is to strip out things we don’t want to see. For example, Britney Spears has is not relevant to me, thus I’d like to shut her out.

Obviously, APML supports this filtering because it dictates what a person likes and what they dislike.

Can Google make money from Google Reader? Is it a profit center? Does it matter? Whatever the answers to these are, I don’t ever see Google Reader as being a product for the masses. Rather, someday I see a mass market product where Google gives iGoogle users automated links/stories that could be relevant.

Google has a history of thinking along the lines of “we’ll just give people what we think they’ll like”. This is great, but it doesn’t give much control to the user. If they were to take a leadership role in DataPortability, they’d give people a reason to be more loyal.

They might be worth $175b or $200b, but what goes up, must come down at some point. I think they can sustain their lead quite a while longer if they open up more and give some control to the user.

]]> By: Nick Halstead http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/#comment-46793 Nick Halstead Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:49:06 +0000 http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/#comment-46793 Great article, This is exactly why we have adopted APML for fav.or.it, we recently announced our support for it on the blog (http://blog.fav.or.it) and will be letting people import and export their attention data. Great article, This is exactly why we have adopted APML for fav.or.it, we recently announced our support for it on the blog (http://blog.fav.or.it) and will be letting people import and export their attention data.

]]> By: Elias Bizannes http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/#comment-45556 Elias Bizannes Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:52:28 +0000 http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/#comment-45556 Lama boy - you are baiting me for yet another post on APML and how it helps privacy. Don't push me!! Lama boy - you are baiting me for yet another post on APML and how it helps privacy. Don’t push me!!

]]> By: Marshall Kirkpatrick http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/#comment-45211 Marshall Kirkpatrick Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:43:47 +0000 http://Liako.Biz/2007/10/how-google-reader-can-finally-start-making-money/#comment-45211 so the privacy comes in by saying don't advertise against what i'm literally doing right now, advertise against the keywords gleaned from my aggregate data? i want to see ads about lama grooming & not just when i 'm reading a gmail about buffy, my lama. *that* is none of google's business! so the privacy comes in by saying don’t advertise against what i’m literally doing right now, advertise against the keywords gleaned from my aggregate data? i want to see ads about lama grooming & not just when i ‘m reading a gmail about buffy, my lama. *that* is none of google’s business!

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