I love music. But I hate when three applications fight over which gets to play it when I click on the links at http://del.icio.us/popular/system:filetype:mp3 . So I decided to do something about it: you will now notice a 
to the left of every mp3 link. Go ahead, click on it and enjoy the peaceful beauty when the music just plays.
Earlier this week we pushed out a new release of Reader. Most of the changes are under the hood and should make for a faster, smoother experience. However, there were a few user interface tweaks too. My favorite is support for the space keyboard shortcut. In all browsers, pressing the space key moves down in the current page. Reader's addition to that is to advance to the next item if you're at the end of the current one. This means that you can read your entire reading list with just one finger press! I'm sure there is some sort of Pavlov's dog joke to be made here, but we can't take too much credit for the one-click advance, since it's been present in email clients for ages.
Here's a more complete list of other changes we've made:
We plan on keeping the features and improvements going strong. Feedback = better Reader. Thanks for your help.
We’ve added a couple more improvements to Bloglines, including a sweet new feature for Bloglines Mobile.
Mobile
Do you often find yourself reading Bloglines on your mobile phone with too many feeds and too little time? Well, we’ve got great news. No, we’re not selling you gecko lizard insurance. But we have made it easy for you to create an abbreviated mobile version of your feed list so you don’t have to scroll past dozens of feeds to get to those you have time to read.
To create your mobile feed list, click the Edit link while in the web version, check which subscriptions you want or don’t want displayed in your mobile view and then select your option in the dropdown menu. You can also change this setting by clicking on the Edit Subscription link while viewing any of your feeds.
Another useful option for dealing with a lot of subscriptions is to have Bloglines only display subscriptions that have unread articles. Click on your Account link and look under Feed Options for the setting to show only updated feeds. This applies to both web and mobile versions. In case you’ve never seen Bloglines mobile, here’s a shot of what it looks like on Robyn’s new phone:
Job Search
Are you spending too much time searching for a job and not enough time reading your Bloglines? Add a personalized job search feed from Simply Hired. Click the Add link at the top of your feed list and then select the Jobs link. If you aren’t job hunting, subscribe to www.simplyfired.com for some great stories like the guy who got fired for eating pizza out of the break room fridge. As the slogan says “If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.”
- The Bloglines Team
Tras apenas ocho meses de vertiginosa existencia transoceánica, Ask España ha abandonado su fase beta y ofrece una experiencia de búsqueda única y diferenciada a los internautas españoles.
Recién anunciado en rueda de prensa en Madrid, el sitio cuenta con una sólida oferta: opciones de búsqueda en España y en español; vistas en miniatura utilizando los Prismáticos; la posibilidad de guardar y compartir páginas web e imágenes en MiAsk; sugerencias para precisar las búsquedas; canales de Noticias, Productos, Descargas y Local en colaboración con empresas líderes en cada sector; Notificador Bloglines; y la recién estrenada Barra Ask.
La ventana de búsqueda de Ask España también estará presente en algunos de los medios de comunicación más importantes del país gracias a los recientes acuerdos con los grupos Zeta y Godó y ¡Hola! La Barra Ask puede descargarse desde ahora en www.softonic.com, el portal de descargas más popular de España, y el área de descargas de Terra.
Los comentarios en prensa impresa y virtual han sido muy alentadores en todo momento (echad un vistazo a nuestro apartado de Prensa en www.es.ask.com y PcWorld, ABC o Expansion y, unidos al lanzamiento de marketing de hoy, deberían dar un empujón definitivo a un buscador que no tiene equivalente en el mercado español.
Muchas gracias a todos los usuarios que han probado el sitio en su versión beta y nos han ayudado con sus comentarios a ofrecer el mejor producto posible.
Caption: Fragmento del mural de Nano 4814 realizado por encargo de Ask España. Ahora expuesta en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, la obra será subastada en eBay y los beneficios donados a la Fundación Chadra.
Jaime Sunen
Ask España
Just 8 months into its vertiginous transoceanic existence, Ask España is out of beta and has brought a unique and differentiated search experience to Spanish Internet users. Check it out at www.ask.es.
Announced in press conference in Madrid, the site offers a wide variety of features to help searchers find what they are looking for faster: solid Spanish language and Spain specific search options; Binoculars to preview results; the possibility of storing and sharing web pages and images through MiAsk; related search for suggestions to refine queries; News, Local, Product and Download channels in partnership with leading providers; Bloglines Notifier; and the just released toolbar: Barra Ask.
In addition, the Ask España search box will be present in some of the most significant Spanish media thanks to recent agreements with Zeta and Godó groups and ¡Hola! The Barra Ask is also available for download in www.softonic.com, the most popular download portal in Spanish language, as well as Terra's download area.
The feedback on both printed and online media has been very positive so far (brush up your high school Spanish and take a look at our Press section on www.ask.es or check PCWorld, ABC or Expansion to get an idea) and, with today's marketing launch, should give one last push to a search engine that has no equivalent in Spain.
Thanks to everyone who tested the beta site and provided feedback to help us deliver the best possible product for our formal launch.
Caption: Part of the mural created by Nano 4814 for Ask España. The piece is now on exhibition at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. The proceeds from its eBay auction will be donated to Fundación Chadra, the charity working to help get people online.
Jaime Sunen
Ask España
Finally, MSN Search was visited by Channel 9 – the amazing MSDN Web site that brings the people of Microsoft to you in video. Erik Selberg and I joined Robert Scoble for a lively, hour-long discussion. Check out the video here.
We talk about:
And lots more -- check it out! BTW, in a small world moment, Erik and I worked together on software for psychology experiments when we attended Carnegie Mellon way back in 1990. We also shared a wall between our respective abodes, and… wait, those stories are for a different blog!
Andy Edmonds, Program Management
I've written my share of Greasemonkey scripts. I'm therefore very glad that in turn other people are writing their own scripts for Google Reader. We make no guarantees that we won't (inadvertedly) break them, but we'll certainly be looking at them for inspiration as to what our users want out of the application.
Get Google Reader scripts and more at the Userscripts.org repository. To learn more about Greasemonkey and learn how to install scripts, check out the excellent Dive Into Greasemonkey.
First post! Everyone from the Google Reader team would like to say hello. (Say hello, everyone.)
(Everyone looks up while still typing.) "Hello, internet."
I'm lucky I got their attention - the last two weeks have been a whirlwind. Most products at Google see incredible attention whenever they're released and Reader followed this now familiar pattern:
Given that some servers survived their newfound celebrity and that all of the team members are still breathing (just checked again) I'm willing to call this a remarkable success. Especially for a Labs launch of this scope and for an actual beta-level project. I'd like a recap now - which is as much for my benefit as yours since we've been heads-down for a bit.
A small Labs effort can be used to gauge the amount of interest in Google helping in some area. Since Reader accounts number in the hundreds of thousands in only our first two weeks of being out there it seems fair to say that there is some. Demonstrated need drives development - so we think we can go ahead with many of our plans which have included more interfaces (the lens is just one of several planned approaches), better ways of recommending new things to you and performance bolstering.
If you develop anything Reader-related drop us a line. We'd be happy to post about it here. We're excited to be making Reader - most of us slept overnight at the office during launch week. It's been an amazing experience.
We're curious about one thing, though, and maybe the developers of other feed reader projects can tell us about their experience when testing their products...
How do you stop from being distracted by, well, the whole internet? It's an endless divertimento - I mean, seriously, it just keeps coming...