back to article Hey Google, Facebook has a 'Reader' that might actually make money

Facebook is reportedly prepping a service for its users that allows them to display news content in a format geared up for mobile gadgets on its network. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Mark Zuckerberg-run company has been working on the project - internally codenamed "Reader" - for more than a year. The newspaper …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    So another way to gather data about you?

    If you use this then FB knows all the news content you are interested in. I am pretty sure that they will sell this to the marketing droids.

    But what happens when the (for example) the NYT gets to hear that you read it and then offers you a subscription bypassing FB? Will Zuck & Co be happy at this? I think not. They want to keep you locked in to their system.

    Naturally, this applies only if you are foolish enough to use FB (IMHO and I don't)

    1. fandom

      Re: So another way to gather data about you?

      "But what happens when the (for example) the NYT gets to hear that you read it and then offers you a subscription bypassing FB?"

      You just wrote the reason why Facebook won't sell the data to marketing droids, so why are you pretty sure they will do it?

      Facebook, and Google and the rest, are not in the business of selling data, they are in the business of telling ad agencies 'sure, we will show the ad to someone who will be interested, trust us"

  2. Velv
    Pirate

    If you're not paying for it, you're not the customer. You're the product being sold.

    But sometimes it's nice to be wanted

    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      it's nice to be wanted

      You are always the product being sold, whether or not you happen to be a paying customer as well.

      1. h3

        Re: it's nice to be wanted

        Do RIM do anything like that ? (I don't know I presume they might but they make out they don't).

  3. frank ly

    I'm using Feedly now

    Now that they've got their presentation options sorted out so it gives headlines and not a glossy magazine format with giant pictures. The website is very good (clean and simple) but the Android app still has some glitches. Note: Feedly does some kind of in-page browser rendering which can cause problems if you want to do detailed stuff in Android.

    I gave up on Newsblur after many problems with updating feeds and read counts.

    1. stratofish
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: I'm using Feedly now

      I was resigned to switch to Feedly as the best of a bad bunch until last week when I rebooted into Windows for a change and discovered the Chrome extension changes made (without asking) in March that keep Feedly active even when the browser is closed. Apart from it not needing an extension in the first place that is just way too invasive for my liking.

      So I'll use one of the others and cross my fingers something decent turns up soon.

      1. Silver

        Re: I'm using Feedly now

        I've got my fingers crossed for Digg Reader as I don't want social sharing or a magazine-like user interface. If that stinks, then I'm not sure what I'm going to do as I cannot stand any of the alternatives I've played with so far.

        The other concern I have is what domain these services are going to have. If they hang off popular time-wasting locations on the interwebs, then IT departments will already have them on their block-lists.

      2. Ken Y-N
        Go

        Feedly no longer needs an extension!

        > the Chrome extension changes made (without asking) in March that keep Feedly active even when the browser is closed

        Two weeks ago or so they went to an all-native implementation at cloud.feedly.com, so you can, as I have, delete the Chrome extension.

        There's still a couple of bugs regarding messages not staying read, but on the whole I'm most satisfied, but if only they'd do SSL...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Netvibes - and it can also replace iGoogle

    An old Google Reader fan here. Switched a couple of months ago and discovered that it can also replace my other soon-to-be-killed iGoogle home page. With a surprising degree of equivalence, I've to say.

    And is also free. Well, Netvibes say that they don't do anything with my data, and up to now I've no reason to not believe them.

    Their mobile website is a bit temperamental, but works well enough. No need for Reader any more. And I'll really think again next time before committing to use anything from Google.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Netvibes - and it can also replace iGoogle

      And I'll really think again next time before committing to use anything from Google.

      I was thinking that last night, when I finally worked out why my Android tablet's battery life had suddenly gone from good to utter shit, with WiFi battery use having gone from an "also ran" to top of the battery chewage list by a country mile.

      Answer; something called Google Currents, which appears to be a way of shoving the Huffington Post in your face (I can think of better places to shove that). This suddenly decided to default to background syncing on (I never touched it - honest!) and was busily sucking away like some fatbastard trying to drink a McDonalds' bucket 'o chilled semen. Killed that setting and battery life was restored, with "screen" comfortably at the top of the use list where it belongs.

      Can't help thinking (again) that Android would be so much better if it were just taken away from Google and their useless cruft were forcibly excised from it.

      1. Chris 244
        Thumb Down

        Google Currents

        Don't understand your Huffington Post wheeze, Currents let's you pick which feeds you want to follow (including El Reg and Groklaw). Settings > Background Sync > Disable or > Only if Charging. Sorted.

      2. Gene Cash Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Netvibes - and it can also replace iGoogle

        Go to the app info and hit the "disable" button, and it's all better, at least under 4.2.2.

        I've disabled chrome, currents, gmail, books, magazines, movies & TV, news & weather, sound search, talk, picasa uploader, and wallet on my phone. It's all useless shit but at least you can disable it.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @TeeCee

        "Can't help thinking (again) that Android would be so much better if it were just taken away from Google and their useless cruft were forcibly excised from it."

        There's a cost to everything and so there's no such thing as a free lunch... even if that "free lunch" is the "McDonalds' bucket 'o chilled semen" that you mentioned. But that's what Google is, after all.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "... Facebook's users, who are increasingly defecting to mobile."

    I probably look at it more on a tablet than on a PC, but I prefer the PC layout rather than their crappy app.

    Though it would be nice if I could turn off the chat option permanently. Bloody thing keeps turning on.

    And neither the app or the web page remembers that I want to sort by most recent post.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like