Google Has its Work Cut Out

I just recently discovered the Reader Play function in Google Reader, though it's actually been around since March. Currently a Labs experiment, it tries to provide a more visual way of scanning RSS feeds and articles, employing a "film strip" of articles along the bottom and animated side-scrolls of articles. While nice in concept, in execution it leaves a lot to be desired in usefuleness, functionality, and usability. Whoever thought that center-justified gray text on a black background that runs the entire width of the browser window (making for some huge long lines of text to read), needs to go back to interface design school. Google Labs' other experiment, Fast Flip provides another way to look at articles quickly and visually, but it's still pretty ho-hum looking.

Just how much further advanced other offerings are came to light at the >Play Conference at UC Berkeley. Two startups showed their offerings that do much the same thing as Google Reader Play, Qwiki, and Alphonso Labs' Pulse. Both of these are a) way nicer to look at and more interesting to use, and, b) better at aggregating content from other sources that Reader doesn't touch (Facebook, news sites that you may not have explicitly subscribed to, etc.). Even going beyond Flipboard in some ways, they explore new ways of presenting diverse and frequently updated content. (Here's a Mashable article about Qwiki.)

The utilitarian approach to UI that Google has stuck with over the years is starting to lose its value as other free services appear that offer better functionality, access to the same content, and better user experience. Google needs to dramatically up its UI game if it's going to keep up with these and other startups. They may not topple Google—but remember that Google itself was a scrappy startup in a garage at one point....

AVP of Marketing Strategy Adam Richardson is the author of Innovation X: Why a Company’s Toughest Problems are its Greatest Advantage. His book is the manual for leaders looking for clarity about the emerging challenges facing their businesses. You can follow Adam on Twitter @richardsona.