farner(in)

There is one thing and one thing only that is keeping me from totally moving over to Google Voice.

The lack of MMS support.

I have this fancy iPhone thingamabob and I had to wait a long time to send and receive multimedia messages on it.  Do you really think I’m going to give that up now?

I’d be okay with giving everyone a new phone number.  I’d even be okay with having to use GV Mobile to place all my calls.  But I *will not* let picture and video messages intended for me be sent off into some black hole in space (seriously, what does Google do with those?).  The fact that it doesn’t even send you a warning is unforgivable.  I mean, even AT&T did that.  If you’re doing something worse than AT&T, you’re in a bad place.

Anyone agree?

So I was watching Star Wars Episode 3 tonight (and before you say anything, yeah I know, it isn’t that great) and a certain quote from the movie reminded me of something.  Courtesy of Natalie ‘Padme’ Portman:

“So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause.”

I have to say that I’m really liking the new features Google has tossed into Reader.  It’s always been a great RSS reader in my mind but the social features have added a whole new dimension.  On top of sharing (which we’ve had for awhile), we can now follow other users, like items and comment in a way similar to how we’ve done on the lifestream service I will not mention.  It seems like Google is trying to fill a void that hasn’t quite opened yet but could sometime in the future.  Kudos to them.

A few gripes though.  Why is the following/commenting system so borked?  If someone is following me, I want them to be able to comment on my stuff.  End of story.  If we’re following each other then I’d really expect them to be able to comment on my stuff.  But they can’t.  I have to put them into a group in order for them to comment and vice versa.  That just seems odd to me.

Another thing – refresh rate.  Can we get a faster refresh time?  Or how about real-time?  I’ve been spoiled, Google.  I’m sorry.

One more thing – notifications.  I would love to be notified somehow if someone has commented or liked an item I’ve shared.  There’s no easy way to figure this out at the moment – you just scroll, click and pray.  FriendFeed (oops, I mentioned them) puts your liked/commented-on items at the top of your feed.  Facebook pops up a little red alert at the bottom of the screen when someone interacts with your content.  Can we have this Google?  Please?

My wish list aside, I’m liking the attention that Reader is getting lately and plan to start spending a lot more time in it.  I don’t see it as just a feed reader anymore but as social discovery tool.  This was a major draw for FriendFeed and I’m glad that another option is shaping up.

Want to follow me in Google Reader?  Please do.  http://www.google.com/reader/shared/shawnfarner