Just few quick ideas,

Quiet and Immersive modes?

Again with modes, how about a background mode (quiet) and a full attention mode (immersive)? One of the things I miss about google reader is that I could go into it and have a good feed reading session. At the moment, when I want an intensive session I dock my side bar and click away, which is fine, however I don't get the same sense of progress and achievement that I did with google reader.

Graphical progress info?

It would be nice to know a little bit more about what particls is doing in terms of processing my feeds. For example, when the side bar shows me a story from http://www.particls.com/blog/ I'd like to know if there are other posts there that I haven't read yet. Maybe this could be done with a little graphic under the favicon that shows the percentage of unread posts before the displayed post and after. Maybe the top of the sidebar could have a similar gauge for all posts.

Metrics.

Another thing I miss from google reader is that you can look at your feed reading trends. It's not high priority, but maybe something to think about in relation to APML. APML is your attention profile but what about your attention data? ie, your attention trends over time?

That's all for know.
Michael

On second thoughts, maybe some of these ideas (if embraced fully) would encourage my old bad habits of reading every post.

 

That's true Michael - we don't want people to think of the old feed reading habbits - Particls is really not about feed reading but rather about notification - it is not designed to replace google reader

but as something used as a "go-between" the desktop and the feed reader there will be a tendency toward feature creep that just might be healthy. I really like a small plugin for firefox that shows me how many emails I have in Gmail and when hovering over the icon I get subj. sender and preview of the message. Huge timesaver.

Seems like particls is very much like this and could be configured to show just a little more detail without being obtrusive.

I also see it in conjunction with Tangler to do a diversity of functions using the same framework - just different names.

omdesign you will love the new particls and some of the features for extensibility we are building in

thanks Chris I'm sure it is going to be stunning.  I have been discussing a possible interface for Tangler that allows for redefinition of items but same functionality.. allows a lot of different kinds of collaboration for small groups and communities who have a goal.

I really like the approach of particls in that situation where you can really keep abreast of what is relevant to you and drill down if/when you want. I think it is going to be a really useful combination of features.

Any update on the possibilities with Freebase?

I'm also curious about the details mentioned on the site about licensing your technology - possibly for an online university.

Om