web 2.0 – Page 14 – Andy writes!

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was this nifty widget on the left sidebar of this blog. This widget let me share interesting stuff from my Google Reader RSS feed with readers of this blog, five items at a time. (That’s what it looked like, over there on the left.)

This widget held value for me because it gave me an easy way to present shareworthy news items with readers, without going to the trouble of blogging about those specific topics. If I found something I thought might be interesting to readers, I could simply click “share” on my Google Reader interface and, like magic, it would appear in the widget. This was a great way to share additional content here on this blog that I found interesting but not necessarily blogworthy.

Just as I shared that content here on the blog, it also was shared in the Google Reader environment itself with dozens of other higher ed folks and other connections in marketing, PR, music and related interests. I could share stuff from my RSS feed with my Google Reader connections, as well as read what they were sharing. It was an enriching experience.

Then on Halloween, Google pulled the plug on the Google Reader sharing function as we had become accustomed to, and re-routed it to the world of Google Plus.

So now, if I want to share items from my RSS feed, I can only do so via Google Plus. Not on this blog or in the native Google Reader environment.

I think this sucks. And I’m not the only one who thinks that. Many Google Reader devotees have voiced their unhappiness with this switch. They’re saying stuff like:

Keep the social functions! Yes yes yes. Don’t ruin all the functionality of Reader by removing the social stuff, that’s how I get all my news – it’s lovely to have my friends pick and choose what I read, but not have it lumped in with all the Facebook/Google+ style crapola.

And:

The beauty of Google Reader for me is the fact that my friends and I can have discussions about the interesting things we’re reading, in the same place that I’m reading all my RSS feeds. Go ahead and update the user interface if you have to, but don’t take away functionality!

And:

Please keep Google Reader social. I love that my friends and I can have discussions about CONTENT on google reader, unlike other social networks concerned with update status and other nonsense.

And so on. But perhaps the strongest critique comes from former Google Reader Product Manager Brian Shih, who nailed it with his Halloween post (hat tip to TechCrunch). Acknowledging the value of visual consistency as a design aesthetic, Shih rightly points out that “whoever made the update did so without ever actually using the product to, you know, read something.”

The fact of the matter, as Shih points out, is that the purpose of Google Reader is not at all the same as that of Google Plus.

Reader is a product built to consume information, quickly. We designed it to be very good at that one thing. G+ is an experience built around browsing (similar to Facebook) and socializing. Taking the UI paradigm for G+ and mashing it onto Reader without any apparent regard for the underlying function is awful and it shows.

A pretty scathing critique, but also pretty accurate. This change has left a bad taste in the mouth of this longtime Google Reader user. I haven’t exactly cottoned up to G+. (Like Alaina Weins, I’ve more or less given up on G+ altogether.) So shoehorning the sociability of Google Reader, a product that I love(d), into the G+ atmosphere isn’t going to convert me into a G+ fan any time soon.

Plus, I miss my Google Reader sharing widget. And isn’t sharing what social media is all about?

So now that the baseball postseason is over and the St. Louis Cardinals are World Series champs for the 11th time in their history (#gocards, #11in11), I can’t use that as an excuse for not blogging anymore. So I thought I’d ease back into the higher ed blogging scene with a Friday Five recapping some of the things that have made higher ed news while I was distracted.

1. HighEdWeb 2011 happened in Austin, one of the coolest cities in the universe. This is old news for all of you, I’m sure. In fact, you were probably there, right? It seems like most of the higher ed marketing community was there, judging from my Twitter stream. But if you missed it, you can catch the highlights from many of the sessions via Link: The Journal of Higher Ed Web Professionals, which recruited a phalanx of bloggers to cover the conference. Some really good stuff there. If you’re looking for additional context, check MeetContent‘s summary of content-related takeaways from the conference, or read what Tim Nekritz, the Geddy Lee of the higher ed marketing world, has to say about what a Johnny Cash cover band can teach us about project management.

2. Meet the Innovator, a new video interview series from Higher Ed Live, will make its debut next week. Unlike HEL creator Seth Odell’s (mostly) weekly live broadcast, Meet the Innovator will consist of a series of pre-recorded interviews “that will highlight education innovators and spotlight the impact their work is having on our industry. From start ups rethinking the digital delivery of educational content to classroom instructors and higher ed administrators making transformational changes in their fields, this series will introduce the industry to thought leaders and influencers who are making a difference and fueling the change our industry so desperately needs.” I’m looking forward to this one.

3. Why the fuck should I choose Oberlin? came down the pike and captured a lot of attention. At first, my inner 15-year-old said, “Fucking brilliant.” Then my 51-year-old kicked in and shook his jaded head. The site is obviously unofficial and based on other popular sites that drop the F-bomb into their titles. Georgy Cohen first brought this site to my attention earlier this week with her post A dash of WTF FTW, and with her followup post, Georgy dissects the site in the context of “the real Internet.”

When I see WTFSICO, I see a reflection of any number of popular single-serving sites that come down the pike, go viral (like, legitimately viral) and spark a huge amount of sharing, conversation and attention. In short, what I see is the real internet. I don’t see a time-delayed facsimile that has been vetted by committees and upheld by established best practices, and in the process had all the life, authenticity and relevance wrung right out of it. I see a real-time cultural echo.

In higher ed, we far too often call that a risk.

Well stated, Georgy. Darn well stated, even.

4. Social media success, Aggie-style. A story from Texas A&M’s news site discussing the university’s success with social media.

5. Overcoming “insecurity work” — good stuff from FastCompany about how our data-driven, report-driven work creates insecurity and can harm productivity, via @johntlawlor.