Redmond's reader app for newspapers? No thanks

Microsoft this week teamed up with Associated Newspapers, Forbes Inc. and Hearst to offer special "reader" software designed to make it easy to download and view newspapers and other periodicals.

The project is part of the software potentate's push to show off certain features in the Vista operating system. Microsoft had previously released a version of the software designed for The New York Times.

The reaction among bloggers seemed to be "that's nice, but who cares?" Requiring special software just to read the paper seemed like a bit too much effort for most, no matter how well the software worked.

Blog community response:

"Based on my interpretation of the product press release, each publication that uses this technology will have its own unique application. Why would I want different reader apps for different publications?"
--jk on the run

"I am left scratching my head and wondering what the hell any of these publications are thinking. Why on earth would anyone download multiple pieces of software--all of which are based on the same rendering engine from Microsoft--to read different newspapers? It makes no sense."
--Mathew Ingram

"Google Reader is eating the lunch of this approach. Why? Cause we'll put up with a little less readability in order to share items with other people, in order to see the information on multiple computers and platforms, and the ability to mash up the content with content from other services ala BlogLines, NewsGator, or Google Reader or other RSS aggregators."
--Scobelizer