Is there a need for New Newsreader?
I’ve been thinking a lot about RSS Readers lately. I’ve always been partial to desktop newsreaders like Newsfire, but the allure of the multi-context flexibility of online readers like Google Reader has found me thinking about switching camps.
But one issue seems to be holding me back: All the online newsreaders are so UGLY!
If I’m going to be spending the majority of my face time with my news feeds online, then I want my experience to at least be a pleasurable one. Not only should online newsreaders support strong interaction for reading the news, but it should be also be a delight to look at.
And by being online, it should be able to support multiple contexts. So if I’m away from my desk I should be able to read my favorite feeds on my mobile device, my Kindle eBook reader, or even a nicely printed paper.
So in an effort to try do something about the general state of ugliness in the online newsreader space I started a very ill advised attempt this weekend to extend the excellent work of Jon Hicks’ gReader to work in Fluid. It seemed like a good idea, but it is a lot of work to reverse engineer such complex code, forget about the time it would take to maintain it.
At some point I realized that I realized it would be easier (I’m sure a gross understatement) to just build an online newsreader from scratch. One that works great AND looks great.
When Garrett and I had the idea for Leaflets last year, the technology started as a simple newsreader. Using Magpie, Garrett was able to quickly put together a simple, scalable newsreader engine quickly. We were able to reuse the underlying code numerous times to create a variety of “leaflets” in mere weeks.
So in thinking about my dream newsreader I came up with the following lists of things it should do:
1. It should look f*ing great.
It should be rivaling the user experience of desktop apps, not be some poor substitute. Design is a crucial part of the experience. I want to be able to enjoy reading my news, not feel like I’m reading my email, which seems to be the most commonly adopted user interface convention.
2. It should work great.
After all it is a newsreader. You should be able to read your news easily and never feel hindered by the fact that it is a web app. This means all the interactions should be nicely designed, but it should also load quickly, with next to no lag (or at least have some user feedback while content is loading).
3. There has to be a mobile version
By being online you can keep your news syncing across multiple devices. Having a mobile access to your news is crucial and you don’t want to have to mark old news as read once you get back to your desk.
4. It should support multiple view types
I can think of several ways I might want to view my news. For example you would have a headline view, and a “River of News” view, but there are other views that might be helpful, like a Coverflow like view, or a Newspaper layout. The point is that it’s my news. I might feel like a functional view one day, and an experiential view the next.
5. It should be taggable.
Folders for organizing news might be helpful for some groups of feeds, but it largely seems to add volume and make reading your news more tedious. So each feed should be taggable, both by me and by others. So if someone tags Daring Fireball with “Apple” or “Mac” I shouldn’t have to. By adding tags, things can start getting interesting with creating Smart Feeds, being able to add logic to filter feeds on the fly.
6. It should be shareable.
I know a lot of people don’t like the sharing features of Google Reader, but I think it is an important element. We amass a lot of information through feeds these days and the ability to get it out of our newsreader and into the heads of others is an important part of the experience. I want to be able to add notes to feed items and generate my own RSS feed that I’m able to import into other web apps, widgets, mobile apps, etc. That is when really interesting things start to happen.
7. It should be skinnable.
So I might create a design I really like, but maybe someone else doesn’t like it. I might want something that looks more native to my Mac, but someone else wants it to look like Vista. The user should be able to select from multiple themes and if they don’t like what they see, they should be able to customize to suit.
8. You should be able to send to your Kindle (or other eBook Reader)
I love my Kindle, so why can’t I send a version of today’s news to my Kindle in a nicely formatted PDF? So if I’m going on a train or a long flight I can take it with me and not have to worry about data access? I think portability of news is crucial, and while I don’t rank this high now, it is growing in importance as new devices come out.
9. You should be able to print your news.
Adding to notion of portability, I should be able to print out my news in a nicely formatted, newsy format. Again, if I’m traveling and want something to read, I can quickly print out my news and read it on the morning commute.
10. It should play nicely with Site Specific Browsers (SSB’s)
Last but certainly not least, I should be able to create my own desktop apps using tools like Fluid, Prism or even Adobe AIR. So if I prefer to have a dedicated app for my news that it just works.
11. It should be free.
That all of the above should be free to the masses. There are more creative ways of making money these days then charging for features they can get free elsewhere. I have some ideas of how to make the necessary cash to keep a product like this alive, but I certainly don’t think you would need to rely on subscription fees.
So this all begs the question, should I do something about it? Should I try and build an online newsreader service? While not part of my original Six Site ideas, it is definitely worthy of being one.
I know it can be done, but this idea would require a lot more functionality. I think it needs to be something more than just another newsreader. It would probably take me more time to create it than the other six ideas, but it might be worth it.
I want to hear from you. Let me know what you think. Vote in our poll, or contact us directly.
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