Why Google Reader rocks…
…because it has an XHTML version for my mobile.
I am the dream user for any mobile service. I spend 2 hours every day on a packed commuter train, travelling in and out of London. So I actually have the time to play with all sorts of stuff on my phone. I read personal and corporate email on my Blackberry enabled Nokia E61, which is good fun. But then, when I am bored of that, I launch the browser and hit Google Reader.
Now I don’t want to get into a debate about the Web version of Reader. Some people love it, others don’t. I probably belong to the former category, mostly because of the single-key operation via the Space-bar. But is the Mobile version that has really turned me into a true convert.
What works really well on the phone is the aggregated view of the headlines, because it reduces the number of requests my phone’s browser needs to make. By comparison, on the mobile version of Bloglines, I need to click once on the feed title to view new article headlines and then again on the headline to view the article. Then back and back again. The terrible latency of mobile networks makes this into a painful experience. On Google Reader though I just see all the new headlines from the feeds that I am subscribed to and just need to click on the headline. This cuts the number of round-trips in half, not very relevant on the desktop, but hugely beneficial on the phone.
Now, if you want to try it, here is how to do it. First, import your feeds to Reader from an OPML file. Then, point your phone browser to http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/. Alternatively you can add the Google Reader module to your Google Personalized Home page. Once you have done that the module will also become available on mobile version of your Personalized Home page.
