5 ms·

The Subtle Genius Of Google+ For iPad: Popular Posts Appear Bigger

23 points by Garbage 14y ago

bradleyland 14y ago
Sometimes when browsing HN on my iPad, certain posts appear smaller (although I don't recall any larger). Does anyone know if that's a bug, or if it's a result of down voting? I don't see it on my desktop using Safari.
- sp332 14y ago
  I think it's your browser trying to resize elements of the page to fit on the screen. Firefox for mobile and IE on my Windows phone are both pretty inconsistent about sizes of text on HN pages.
flixic 14y ago
What's subtle about this, and what's genius about this? This layout feels very natural on tablet, but there's nothing groundbreaking at all. Flipboard has been doing that since beginning.
- alttab 14y ago
  Its TechCrunch for crying out loud. What do you expect?
  - samstave 14y ago
    Typos and poor editing.
- untog 14y ago
  In a world where Apple are lauded for changing their switcher controls to be circles instead of rounded squares, I think we can just give Google this one.
- deveac 14y ago
  The subtle genius in this isn't specifically mentioned in the article itself. The genius (ok, that's a bit grandiose) is that it actually helps solve a problem for G+, which is user engagement. In social posts, conversation begets conversation, or, the more user activity there is in a post, the more it generates. By making the posts with the most activity larger (or otherwise highlighting them), the user's attention is focused on the turf that is most likely to pull them into engagement. The less trafficked posts might suffer, but that's of no consequence when the goal is increasing user momentum and engagement overall. My take on it anyway. I think it's a clever idea that aids in solving a familiar problem that fledgling social networks have to tackle. Besides HN and Reddit, I use Hubski, where I am watching the same engagement issues being addressed (albeit in completely different ways). Small things like this are actually a big deal when you're starting out imho.
swah 14y ago
I liked that idea in newsola a couple years ago...

23 points by Garbage 14y ago

Sometimes when browsing HN on my iPad, certain posts appear smaller (although I don't recall any larger). Does anyone know if that's a bug, or if it's a result of down voting? I don't see it on my desktop using Safari.

sp332 14y ago
I think it's your browser trying to resize elements of the page to fit on the screen. Firefox for mobile and IE on my Windows phone are both pretty inconsistent about sizes of text on HN pages.

flixic 14y ago

What's subtle about this, and what's genius about this? This layout feels very natural on tablet, but there's nothing groundbreaking at all. Flipboard has been doing that since beginning.

alttab 14y ago
Its TechCrunch for crying out loud. What do you expect?
- samstave 14y ago
  Typos and poor editing.
untog 14y ago
In a world where Apple are lauded for changing their switcher controls to be circles instead of rounded squares, I think we can just give Google this one.
deveac 14y ago
The subtle genius in this isn't specifically mentioned in the article itself. The genius (ok, that's a bit grandiose) is that it actually helps solve a problem for G+, which is user engagement. In social posts, conversation begets conversation, or, the more user activity there is in a post, the more it generates. By making the posts with the most activity larger (or otherwise highlighting them), the user's attention is focused on the turf that is most likely to pull them into engagement. The less trafficked posts might suffer, but that's of no consequence when the goal is increasing user momentum and engagement overall. My take on it anyway. I think it's a clever idea that aids in solving a familiar problem that fledgling social networks have to tackle. Besides HN and Reddit, I use Hubski, where I am watching the same engagement issues being addressed (albeit in completely different ways). Small things like this are actually a big deal when you're starting out imho.

swah 14y ago

I liked that idea in newsola a couple years ago...