Sunday, November 30, 2008

Stuff Google Reader Should Fix

I'm pretty sure any and all information obsessed people are using Google Reader by now. The thing though is that despite how great it is there are still some pretty annoying issues with it. A lot of these options no doubt shouldn't be added to everybody's account, but instead should be handled like Gmail with the lab projects.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add filter options (to block unwanted news and better organize news, example: Google Reader Filter, FeedHub)
- Add an option to customize the keyboard controls
- When searching, dig deeper into articles
- Qualitatively rank news (example: AideRSS, PostRank)
- Consolidate similar news items and only show the most informative source unless I want to dig deeper
- Stop accepting article updates as new news
- Stop screwing up the times of articles, just date the article as it is posted not as I change the tags or whatever else
- Stop erasing my tags when I star an article
- Integrate a preview option
- Provide a list for reviewing which articles you just looked at regardless of when they were received
- Enable the “Send mail as” feature from Gmail
- Support password protected feeds (example: FreeMyFeed)
- Enable expiration options (for high volume blogs)
- While in "List" view mode the scrollwheel should high-light one article at a time

WHAT HAS BEEN FIXED:
- While searching allow editing of tags in list/expanded view

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Stuff Facebook Should Fix

If go to the applications page you'll see that you can add a bookmark to Causes and Groups but not Pages. There's also a number of other problems that just drive me nuts which I've listed below.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add a "Recently Added" link to the actual friends page
- Add "Pages" to the "Authorized" applications page
- Add "Pages" to the "Wall Permissions" applications page
- Add "Pages" to the tab-bar (along-side Photos, Causes, Boxes)
- Make it possible to add a bookmark to "Pages" just like you can with Causes and Groups
- Split the "Authorized" applications page with a Facebook default apps section (not a new page just add a header for default apps with all the Facebook default stuff)
- The "Wall Permissions" section lists old apps you've removed from your Facebook (they might as well rename it the history page)

NOTE: When I say bookmark I'm talking about that little bar at the bottom of Facebook where you can stick quick-access links to your Facebook apps.

Does MySpace hate the Groups feature? (Profile 2.0)

Go check out the brand-new profile editor and you'll see what I'm talking about, no groups module and no links to your groups. Practically the only way to get to the groups part of the website is through the "More" menu. Once you get to the groups page you still have to click once again if you want to see only your groups.

WHAT TO FIX:
- Add a groups module to the new profile editor (preferably make the module look identical to the "Friend Space" module)
- Add a "My Groups" link in the Profile menu
- Add a groups link next to "View My:" on your profile
- Fix the "My Groups" page, it's miscounting the number of active-groups (dead groups seem to still get counted)

Friday, November 07, 2008

Google Android - Future Devices

Since I'm having a difficult time remembering what devices are in the pipe for Google's Android, I thought I should compile what I do know. So far HTC is the only company with a product on the market and Motorola is apparently not going to have anything until Christmas of 2009.

DEVICE MAKERS:
Archos
Asustek
Garmin
General Mobile
GiiNii
HTC (T-Mobile site)
Huawei Technologies
Kogan Technologies
Lenovo
Motorola
OpenMoko (official site)
Samsung

UNOFFICIAL DEVICE MAKERS:
Nokia