Seriously. It has to be the most counter intuitive product that Google offers. I've deleted feeds from my reader only to come back later and find them there again! I've added feeds and placed them in folders and they somehow manage to grow legs and walk to a different location! I've even tried creating a whole new folder for them all, and then deleted the old one. Nope. When I go back, the P.O.S. is right back the way it was before I changed it.
And while I'm complaining about Google (keeping in mind that all of this stuff is free to use), let me just say that there are some serious kinks within Blogger and Gmail that drive me absolutely insane.
My main complaint with Blogger is the photo interface. They've added some nice new features with the updated editor, but the pictures are still very difficult to manipulate and move around the page. Why can't blogger make the editing interface the same size as the finished, published copy? Is there a better way to see if your published copy will turn out the way you want it to? Because the "preview" feature, as far as I can tell, doesn't do the job it was intended for. And what's with not having a spell check in the updated editor? Shouldn't they be adding features instead of taking them away?Ah, Gmail. I was told that Gmail was so much better than my Yahoo mail account, but now I'm not so sure. Gmail has no preview pane, and the user interface is very limited in how you can tailor it to your particular viewing tastes. The signature feature is severely lacking, with no way to easily add a hyperlink to the body of your signature. What's with this?
I mean, I'm all for brand loyalty, and I sincerely appreciate all of the uses of Google's free products and services. But it seems like everyone touts Google as being some sort of infallible, all knowing company that can never make a mistake. And that simply isn't the case.
I for one will not be using Google Chrome anytime soon, and I am now looking for a different aggregator with which to view the blogs that I frequent. If anyone has any suggestions, please leave a note in the comments section. I'm currently looking at Mozilla's Email client and feed aggregator, Thunderbird. I've grown pretty fond of their web browsing platform, Firefox. I never get pop ups (unlike when using Microsoft's Explorer, ugh) and the whole user interface is easily customizable for someone like me who hasn't the time or inclination to be tech-savvy.
I look forward to your thoughts and recommendations. And, as always, thanks for reading!
Kirk out.
