Google Reader’s New Functionality: Green Eggs & Ham

Edit: Apparently I’m the only one who is seeing this, and as it turns out, I see it only on my work computer. I’d still like to know if anyone else is seeing what I’m seeing; in the meantime, I’ll retract the ranting against Google. See? I’m not totally unreasonable!  Thanks to those of you who’ve taken the time to provide feedback.

I do not like it, Sam I Am.

Err…Kes? WTH are you talking about?

THIS is what I’m talking about:

See what they did there?

When you click on the title of an article in Google Reader now, instead of being taken to that page, the page is loaded into the Reader. You can even comment within the Reader. How convenient!

How utterly dumb! One of the reasons I use a feed reader is to make the maximum use of my reading time: I can skim articles that don’t interest me, and pore over those that have a lot of meat (for me). But if I want to visit the blog itself, I can no longer do so by clicking the article link (unless there’s something I’m missing!). Instead, I have to click the link to the site’s main page, and from there, I can select the article I want to read. Unless of course, it’s a few days old and archived already. That means more searching.

(Caveat: If you’re still using a single-page, non-tabbed browser such as vanilla IE 6, this is a Good Thing. Umm…raise your hand if you’re a Luddite! (And I’m sorry if you’re stuck with it at work and can’t install Firefox.))

You know, Google, sometimes, I really DO want to visit a particular blog! Now, I suspect if I click through and import the page to the reader, it’s counting as a page and site visit by StatCounter, SiteMeter, FeedBurner Stats, etc. If not…umm…let’s just say, it damn well better! I don’t know the stats, but I’m going to go out on what I think is a pretty sturdy limb here and say Google Reader is probably the most widely used feed reader. If using it means we bloggers aren’t getting credited for site visits and page views, there’s gonna be Trouble. And yes, that’s a capital "T."

Sure, I understand this new functionality is a "convenience." But as with any so-called convenience, give me a choice, dammit! Now, if I’ve overlooked some way to alter this function, someone please enlighten me. But in that case, Google has definitely obscured how and where to change that particular setting.

Nice technology and all that, but I don’t like it. So, am I  the stick-in-the-mud? I’d like your feedback.