Google Reader trying to take on Stumble Upon?

If you have recently in the past few hours logged in to your Google Reader you might have noticed a link to Google Reader Play. This is a concept where you can look up random and interesting articles on Google Reader with a very different and interesting layout. The layout of reader does not change and Reader Play is a totally different landing page. One playing around a bit with it, there is one website which surely must have started feeling a bit jittery.

That website would be Stumble Upon. Take a look at the image below and do not be mistaken. It is the layout for configuring the web pages you come across with Google Reader Play.

Google Reader Plus

  • Visit http://google.com/reader/play for using Google Reader Plus.
  • Unlike Reader you do not necessarily have to sign-in to view random and interesting web pages.
  • The format is unique as in your do not see the entire page but just images and a bit of text and link to the page.
  • This means images have become the key for getting a good viewing experience with Google Reader Plus.

Why Stumble Upon might feel the heat?

Websites like Stumble Upon or Digg deal with a community which promotes and drives traffic to websites. The fear is with Google being the number one search engine, what stops it from giving more and more relevance to a reader recommending an article on Google Reader rather than any other social media?

This sort of randomized looking at articles is very popular and I must say Google Reader Play does have a interesting and eye catching layout. I wonder now if they will take on websites like Stumble Upon and further end up dominating all facets of the internet or is this just a quirky service Google sometimes comes up with but hardly follows up on.

Try out Google Reader Play and write in your comments. I will surely be wanting to read your opinions.

4 Comments

Hemant Pawar March 11, 2010

Google has much more indexed than StumbleUpon….

but what I really like is Distraction Free reading in Google Reader Play ๐Ÿ˜‰

Loveish March 12, 2010

I like the layout of Google Reader Play. It looks cool ๐Ÿ™‚

Kunal March 12, 2010

Interface wise its look gud and usability is nice

zazo March 13, 2010

I saw that but didn’t tried but after reading your review I think I need to rush up ๐Ÿ™‚ Thanks for informing Adi. About stumbleupon thing…I would like to say that Google is 10000 times bigger and stronger than any web shark alive till now. So, if stumbleupon should feel heat from Google then I must say they are crazy..its now a natural phenomena to be away from Google :p