A few weeks ago, Google’s personalized home page enhanced the display of RSS feeds. Normally just the title of the post is shown, and you have to click thru to the site to read the whole thing. They added a way to “open” a quick snippet of the entry, including the main link of the story.
For sites like Techmeme, I end up at Techmeme and 90+% of the time, I just click to the original story. Techmeme guides me to interesting stories, but requires a quick pitstop at their site.
The addition of the “+” enabled me to go direct to the page of interest, and bypass Techmeme. Today I noticed that the Techmeme feed doesn’t have the plusses. Other feeds still do.
Is it fair to assume that Techmeme complained? Probably. This plus probably dropped their traffic a bit. I now miss the feature, not because I hated going to Techmeme, but because I will miss the extra productivity (the pitstop usually adds 10-20 seconds each time).
[UPDATE: In the comments, Gabe says Techmeme didn't complain, and is fine with the sidestep. Good for Techmeme.]
[UPDATE 2: The "+" is back. This return to normal. A technical glitch somewhere, or a quick change/change back? Who cares, I have my short-cut back]
[tags]google, techmeme[/tags]
Interesting.
Nope, Techmeme didn’t complain. Not sure why reader dropped those pluses.
I put the full link in the feed precisely so people can bypass Techmeme…if they want to.
Gabe, good for you to have the heart to allow the sidestep if desired. Now I might have to visit your home page directly more often
Then it is even more interesting to me. Why would they do this to Techmeme, but not others. Thanks for the quick comment. I’ll update the post.