Google Reader Gets a Facelift

Thursday, December 4th, 2008 by Taylor Pratt

Google Reader Gets a Facelift

Less than a month after Google released Gmail themes, the Google Reader team released a new design for Google Reader. Why the change? According to Jenna Bilotta from the Google Reader team, it is an attempt to speed up Google Reader.

Google is all about speed, both under the hood as well as in the user experience. So, in order to make Reader act and feel more speedy and responsive, we’ve removed some visual clutter, simplified some features and given everything a bit more breathing room.

A bit more breathing room is right. Reader has lost some of the clutter that was found at the top of the old reader design, creating a larger viewing area to read your feeds.

Other new features include:

Collapsible navigation
Shared items from your friends have their own section
The ability to hide unread counts (now I won’t cringe everytime I open Reader!)
More feed bundles (feeds related to a topic that you can subscribe to all at once)

I’m a big fan of change, so I’m happy to see Reader get a facelift. I’d still like to see Reader incorporate more of the features from Better GReader so I can enjoy them in Chrome.

What do you think of the new Google Reader design?

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20 comments on “Google Reader Gets a Facelift”

Blog Expert Says:

December 4th, 2008 at 8:39 pm

I love the collapsible navigation. That is one thing I always thought they were missing before. It was the first thing I noticed. I guess that a lot of people must have been saying it to them or they actually tried it out themselves.

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Mike Says:

December 4th, 2008 at 9:27 pm

I am so looking forward to using the collapsible navigation on my Asus Eee PC. It was always hard to scroll through the little box on the lower left before the change.

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Andy Beal Says:

December 4th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

I agree the collapsible navigation was long overdue. I wish they also would let me drag the width of the nav bar too–make it thinner for my netbook screen.
Matt Helphrey Says:

December 4th, 2008 at 11:25 pm

I wasnt a big user before but definitely notice the difference. Ill have to check it out. The feed bundles is the thing I would use most.

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Matt Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 12:17 am

Definitely an improvement, just an overall slicker look and feel. Good functionality.

Matt

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SeoBrain Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 1:04 am

Iam big fan of speed too since my internet connection here not so fast, so usually i will leave the site who have lot of pictures and have many javascript. Good to google who always care about speed.
Busby SEO Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 1:07 am

I only like their collapsible navigation.

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Jacques Seoman Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 4:09 am

I don’t really use Google Reader myself, however the constant evolution of Google’s products serves to confirm their intent to dominate the internet world by offering the best services and interfaces.
Web Design Beach Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 4:18 am

Well it’s a bit brighter for my taste, but now it follows the design of Google docs, so i am fine with that. It would be great if they could allow applying themes like ones from Gmail to Docs and the Reader. But i guess that will be implemented in future.
Le nuove funzioni di Google Reader | 0.2 Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 6:17 am

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George Nobles Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 6:38 am

Google always inventing something new.
Patrick Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 8:18 am

In my opinion, simple is always better. I love a clean simple design and it makes the experience much better. Maybe Microsoft needs to learn some lessons from Google.

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Google Reader update | Wizard's Blog Says:

December 5th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

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December 5th, 2008 at 7:04 pm

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Google Reader gets a facelift | lab209 Says:

December 6th, 2008 at 12:14 am

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Super Affiliate Traffic Says:

December 7th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

I was actually a bit surprised to see Google getting themes for their mail. However, the readeris an improvement. I am sure many people will find it easier to access. It also looks better I think. Mind you, I am not a real reader user. But, since I checked it out before and after , I am able to compare.

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Goran Web Design Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 2:49 am

No matter what you might have to say about Google, you can’t accuse them of resting on their laurels! They’re constantly considering new ways to improve the user experience.. This is why I don’t see them falling from their top dog position anytime soon
My Weekend Reading List - 12/08/2008 | David Risley dot com Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 10:07 am

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Kenney and Kim Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

Navigation is way better. I think this update is awesome. And speed and clean is extremely important.
JT Says:

December 11th, 2008 at 2:09 am

The new navigation is nice.

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