Titan Evolution

The twit.tv network has a new podcast called This Week in Google (TWig) which focuses on Google and other cloud computing news. This has been the most interesting content on the podcast network in the last month. Even though I am a little biased toward the online realm, this show has really captured my attention beyond mere intrigue and interest.

In TWig 4: Filers Versus Pilers they discussed Google’s attempt to include more social components into Google Reader. That made me think about a TED video by Clay Shirky on How social media can make history. It has been a while since I watched the video, so this is probably a very loose connection.

I find it interesting that Google is putting efforts into socializing something as mundane as an online RSS reader. It does make sense from a interactive perspective. People, no matter who they are, want to feel connected with someone else. Even if outwardly they reject human contact, there is still somewhere within the human subconscious that longs for interaction. As we become more exposed to new topics and concepts online other aspects of our lives will soon dive into that world.

I am not an RSS person. I don’t necessarily want a list somewhere with updated information from the sites I frequent. I like visiting the pages to see what is new and to revisit what is old. I don’t want to fathom the time spent clicking random on xkcd while browsing through the back catalog of comics.

Yet, lately I have realized that I’m spending less and less time looking for new sites/topics online. I am in a website rut so to speak. I visit the same few websites every week without putting much thought into anything new. This evening it dawned on me that perhaps I have been viewing things like Google Reader completely wrong. I am not an RSS person because I could not see the value in maintaining a list somewhere. As if somehow I was going to remember that website I read that interesting article about social media or jquery. There is no way I can do that. I cannot remember what I ate earlier in the day. Let alone the website I visited once two months ago instead of folding my laundry.

With that realization it makes perfect sense to me why an application like Google Reader needs social features. Just yesterday I embedded an entry with a video from another site. Specifically to share it with people who come across my site. I want to support websites I enjoy and I don’t see any reason why a tool shouldn’t help me do just that.