Revisiting Google Currents

Several months ago I skewered Google Currents.  I thought that it had some promise, but I was VERY sad about the state of the app and what it actually offered.  Google has taken some very big strides with Currents, though it has been done very quietly.  I decided to spend some time with it and see if anything had been done to make the overall experience better.

The first thing you will notice is a new layout.  This makes pages a lot more attractive to view.  You will notice instantly that based on the choices you have made with Currents that you will be shown different things.  During my initial setup and run-in with Currents I added a lot of customized sites and information.  All of these things populated perfectly and with the new layout it all looks great.  The main page is going to be the articles you requested from the site or source that you have selected.  The menu shows you the categories and the specific sites or sources you have underneath them.  This is a nice overhaul compared to the awful looking layout we had to endure before.

You can select a category, we will use Business.  Under Business I have Forbes, Fast Company, Venture Beat and Breaking Stories.  Breaking Stories is Google's own highlight of what has been happening.  Each category has one.  If I select Forbes I can then swing over to their "page".  They now occupy my screen.  Forbes, and many other sites and sources, have drop down menus.  On Forbes I can drop it down and select from a wealth of different things.  Business, Investing, Technology, Lifestyle, etc.  Each of these options targets a specific portion and provides that information.  It is very much like visiting a website or going to a certain section of a magazine for information or articles.  Again, this is very different from the initial state of Currents.

Adding new sources and sites is a very nice experience.  This wasn't so bad in the original version and not much as changed.  My favorite part of the experience now is what Google has added with the Breaking Stories.  I can head to a category and find some up-to-the-minute coverage in a plethora of things from ANY of the sources available.  Sure, I may not give a shit about ABC News, but they may have a story that is trending and may be important.  While I don't subscribe or have them listed to read, they come up.  This could be infuriating to some, but for me it is awesome.  I don't want to read all of their articles and find them boring, but they could very well break a story first and have ONE very well done article.  I don't have to subscribe just to read it, instead it will be served to me.

I am all about quick and easy media consumption.  While I think some things may need to be done to smooth the edges out, Currents has really come a long way.  I am glad that Google put a little bit of time into it.  I could easily see this replacing a newspaper, maybe even an RSS app for me.  This doesn't have everything and I wasn't able to subscribe to any blogs, but it had enough FOR ME.  With a few modifications this is easily a Google Reader killer... if it wasn't already dead.