Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Steve — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:17:56 -0000

I still don't understand why someone would keep their rss feeds on google reader.. I've been using Firefox Sage extension for a couple years.. works great.. total privacy, runs locally in my Firefox browser..

Why would you want google monitoring yet another aspect of your online life. Given the latest fubar from google, for sure, I'll never use Google Reader or Gmail or other. After all the trouble Facebook got in.. why doesn't the tech industry learn?

Beside tracking your web behavior through their reader and gmail, seems to me, google's domination plan is to get a bit of javascript on every web page in the universe.. particularly troublesome if someone doesn't see the damage to privacy that can be caused by their acquisition of double click. think about that.. for example.. if you visit a web page that runs google analytics.. there's google javascript in there.. if you're on a web page with google adsense.. javascript again.. all they need to do is ping their server with your visit, and they've got your behavior tracked. think about this reach extending to all the sites on which double click has ads.

hmm.. me thinks someone from the tech industry should be speaking up regarding this outrage.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

spragued — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:17:10 -0000

@34 Mitch Ratcliffe at ZDNet also thinks this is just another example of a corporate strategy that seeks to commoditize personal information.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ratc...

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Matt Cutts — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:19:59 -0000

Robert, did you see @7? I'm trapped on a plane, like many people today. Responding well around holidays can be pretty hard.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

francine hardaway — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:06:16 -0000

When Google releases a new product, it always begs forgiveness rather than asking permission. That's because, as the head of Google in Arizona told me, "our mission is to make all the world's knowledge available and accessible." Your shared items, I suppose, are part of the world's knowledge.

The other thing Google does is put stuff out there and let people do what they will with it. Inevitably, some stuff will be rejected. No big whoop. I assume privacy does not exist on the web -- that's why it's an internet. It connects.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Craig — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:25:48 -0000

@29. Given Google's stock price and the fact that their brand is now pretty much a verb, I rather doubt they are losing much sleep over adoption rates of their other applications or the fact that they don't have "video demos" of their apps. Anything that drives users to use their search technology is a good thing in their eyes. Mapquest doesn't seem to have boosted AOL much.

@24. Amazon for the longest time had "millions in revenue", too. How long before they started turning a profit? How much PROFIT does PodTech have? Is their balance sheet in the red or the black? How much PROFIT do your "millions of viewers" result in?

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Derrick — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:18:21 -0000

@22. That wasn't my point. My point was YOU didn't think there was a problem with the way they implemented it and bascially said if people didn't like it, they didn't understand the concept of "privacy" on the internet. YOU "reviewed" the product once you saw it "released". Now you are jumping on the bash Google bandwagon because your peers aren't of the same opinion you originally had? What good would it have done for them to give YOU a briefing? Are you saying you would have had a different opinion of how they implemented sharing had you been briefed by Google PR rather than "reviewing" it on it's own?

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Mujibur — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:12:58 -0000

Rob

Podtech is going to be joining the deadpool soon. Revenue != profit. You and I both know that.

You lack credibility. You jump on a new bandwagon every month (Podtech being one) and when it fizzles out you move on.

So I ask you again - what have you accomplished that lends credibility to your suggestions? I take Winer seriously because he's made real contributions.

Even you claim to love talking to the guys who actually BUILD the technology because they offer real insight. I have to question your insight (and again your credibility) because you are not one of these guys and you have not really built a succesful business.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

saran — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:47:57 -0000

#21 No. its not their decision, pls don't assume as a Free Product. This is an exchange between users and a company by a "Free relationship", you give your data free, they give free services and making money on it. It doesn’t mean they can do anything they want. They have more than 90% control on your data, how much control you have? If communities don't demand for control then the companies decision is the final one, eventually would become a law.

privacy is a dynamic and rapidly changing in 21 century. no one has clear definition, people want to make money, hence privacy being defined by trial and error basis. Google using this as a chance for viral marketing and outsourcing their privacy related concerns to users and understanding their reactions/emotions. welcome to privacy 2.0. to me, privacy is something that has to allow ME to determine to whom and when my information is to be shared (GReader's new feature went beyond this limit, I hope they don’t do when I have my DNA info at 23andme). This definition is somewhat vague, can’t be applied to Government bodies, you have no opt-out with Govt but I can move my data among private companies (in this case, export in Greader). Personally, I have less trust on private companies (especially Google) than Gov, hence I store my data around clouds.

Kind rgrds
Saran

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Robert Scoble — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:18:41 -0000

Peter: here's an assignment for you. Do a survey of all Google's products and then see how many of them have a video demo of how they work. Hint: it's a pretty small percentage.

Second, for a MAJOR feature like this (social networking is the year's hottest trend) they SHOULD pull out all the PR stops. It's how you get adoption. Something that Google isn't very good at, by the way. Even Google Maps still isn't #1 in the marketplace. Ask yourself why that is.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Peter Kasting — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:15:48 -0000

@26: You can now tag entries in various ways, and choose to make particular tags public at an obfuscated URL a la the old system. These aren't automatically shared with all your friends. Also, you can move all your old "shared" items to a particular tag, if you intended them to be sent only to "people interested in my market research" or whatever.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Peter Kasting — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:11:55 -0000

Oh please. "Doesn't use video to communicate with its customers"? There have been videos for all kinds of Google releases including Street View and Android, as well as an entire YouTube channel devoted to explaining Google's privacy practices. Not posting a video about a tiny feature tweak doesn't seem like evidence of complete systemic failure to me. And would it have helped, anyway? The only thing that could have defused the tiny but loud group complaining about how Google ruined Christmas would have been to not release the feature in the form it released. A video explaining things would have helped no more than the blog post.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

SamCollins — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:07:11 -0000

How did they fix the problem? It's still not Granular control. If I share, it's all still public.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Teresa Valdez Klein — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:56:46 -0000

That's because - as John Battelle writes - Google doesn't do community all that well.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Robert Scoble — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:45:53 -0000

>It’s a bit ironic that you are abandoning a failed startup yet you’re giving business tips to GOOG?

Interesting, that "failed" startup, as you put it, had millions in revenues this year alone and my show alone had about a million viewers a month.

Hey, Google can ignore my advice if it wants. I'm not the one who bought YouTube and then doesn't use video to communicate with its customers.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Robert Scoble — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:42:43 -0000

Jamie: >If they have to do all of this every time they roll a new feature, the number of new features they introduce and the frequency with which they introduce them will decline dramatically.

I've done more than 200 demos. NONE have taken more than an hour to film. Some, like the one with Zoho, have been watched more than 100,000 times.

So, are you really serious when you tell businesses not to take an hour to show off their product in video to such a large audience?

How many hours did this feature take to code and test? Hundreds, at minimum. I wouldn't be surprised to hear it took thousands.

And they can't add on another hour for an interview and demo video? Give me a freaking break.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Robert Scoble — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:40:14 -0000

Derrick: you missed the point. Within MINUTES of my first post people were complaining about this feature. If Google had shown this product to 40 bloggers they would have gotten the feedback.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

mick f. — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:59:27 -0000

++1 to comment #10

anyway - it's a free product. why should people whine, not exactly as if anyone forced them to use it or to pay top $$$ for it. if Google implements features that support their business model then that's their decision.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Fake Mark Zuckerberg — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:34:30 -0000

All I can say is I was feeling kinda snubbed that Larry and Serguei didn't send me anything for Hanukah, but over the past week, I realized they were either confused about my religion and sending me a Christmas present or were just belated on the Hanukah front. Either way, I could not have asked for a better gift than for Google Reader to launch in this manner and take virtually all the focus off of Beacon's initial rollout issues (except for the comparisons). Anyway, thanks Google.
- Fake Mark Zuckerberg
www.fakezuck.com

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

normob — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:16:38 -0000

My, aren't we all grumpy after Christmas?

Don't the people criticising Robert here seriously wonder that Google don't seem to have a team of seasoned beta-testers to check over seemingly innocuous-looking updates before releasing them to us, the great unwashed?

Of course Google can't be expected to stick to the HowTo-Launch list for a brand new product all the time.
But they ought to be thinking of each of those points before changing even a button.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Derrick — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:13:58 -0000

You are such a self-promoting tard. Let's review:

http://scobleizer.com/2007/...

Wherein you wrote:

"8:I don’t think it’s a privacy problem because it’s pretty clear to me that when you share something it goes into public view, but some of my friends REALLY disagree. So, that tells me you have, at minimum, a perception/expectation problem and probably have some rethinking to do as you add new features that take advantage of the public shared items capabilities"

So YOU in your infinite wisdom of all things social, did NOT think it a privacy problem. You were GUSHING over these new features from a social networking aspect.

NOW, because people apparently smarter than you seem to be pointing out the flaws you are going back on your position and flogging Google or their missteps? Where was this criticism in your original review?

Sounds like someone is throwing a tantrum because Google doesn't consider him relevant enough to give him a briefing.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Michael Markman (Mickeleh) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:50:33 -0000

Robert, you jumped on the new features immediately and began promoting them vigorously. I don't recall you raising any privacy issues. You were annoyed at seeing duplicate items from your friends. Would you have been more critical if Google PR had paid a state visit to the Court of Scoble?

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

spragued — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:09:01 -0000

They knew exactly what they were doing. They floated this during Christmas -- to test how well no-opt-in social features would be accepted by hardcore users -- with plenty of time to react before most users returned from holiday. This wasn't driven by PR, clearly, but I'd bet money it was driven by Marketing.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Tyme White — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:52:19 -0000

I find it interesting that you have asking the users whether they want the feature and getting feedback the 4th strike. If they did that first, they would have had all the answers they needed. A simple survey on the user's dashboard/home of Reader "do you want your GTalk contacts to see your Shared items automatically?" would have given them more than enough information so they could make an informed decision as to whether to proceed.

I don't use shared items at all but Google's blunder shows how out of touch they are with HOW people use their products.

Not trying to knock opinions but unless Google gets to the root of the problem, understand their mistake and why it was made, then resolve it (that's not "Oops, we made a mistake and we fixed it!") they'll do it again in another form.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

k1v1n — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:48:30 -0000

It seems to me that their first response was pretty lame. Had they done their 2nd release as the 1st it might have played-out completely different. Seems like most of what people were asking for was already there-- and taking a little more time to explain that would have helped immensely.

Re: Could Google Reader team have done a better PR job?

Wills — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:28:01 -0000

"It’s a bit ironic that you are abandoning a failed startup yet you’re giving business tips to GOOG?"

Haha. I laughed.