Another feed, courtesy of Google

Yesterday Google rolled out an update to its mobile app that could save you a search. The Verge’s Casey Newton explains:
The feed will appear in its flagship app for Android and iOS, simply called Google. The feed, which includes items drawn from your search history and topics you choose to follow, is designed to turn Google’s app into a destination for browsing as well as search. Google is hoping you’ll begin opening its app the way you do Facebook or Twitter, checking it reflexively throughout the day for quick hits of news and information.
While other massive platforms soak up the advertising revenue that comes with being an essential destination, Google has found itself acting as a go-between. They want more of your time and attention, so they’re building a new feed.
A new feed could mean more traffic for publishers, but only if people find it compelling enough to keep coming back. I spent some time with my feed earlier today, and I wasn’t impressed with Google’s suggestions. I saw a lot of stories about Dallas (a city I just moved to) and sports (a topic that’s foreign to me), but none of the tech and culture news I love to read. There also isn’t an easy way to bookmark stories for later, so it seems that whatever you don’t click on right away vanishes into the feed.
There’s still definite potential in the idea, though. One feature in particular struck me as a novel benefit. Again from The Verge:
In most feeds, a 10-month-old blog post would appear stale and unwelcome. Google says it’s a sign of the company’s strengths — it can reach into the long tail of articles on the web, and surface them to audiences that missed them the first time around.
Automatic resurfacing could completely change how publishers think about old content that would otherwise go stale. And from a user’s perspective, it positions the Google feed as a utility more than a casual experience, filtering out the noise of Facebook and Twitter to deliver real, relevant information.
The success of this experiment largely depends on how much time and money Google’s willing to spend working on it. The company is notorious for pulling support from beloved products and leaving ideas to flounder for years, so dedicated development is far from a given. But Google has massive reach and an almost endless supply of capital, making it one of very few companies who can challenge Facebook for ownership of our feeds.
