How-To Geek
Fix Google Reader Lag by Blocking Google Plus Button
Chrome: Many Google Reader fans have noticed, since the upgrades last month, that the service is unbearably slow. Speed things up by blocking the Google Plus button.
Ever since the upgrade from the old Google Reader interface to the new integrated-with-Google-Plus interface, many Google Reader users were reporting a painfully long lag between reading entries in Reader. Previously hitting a keyboard shortcut or arrow button to move you through the new stories was instant with no noticeable lag. After the upgrade a lag of 3-5 seconds per individual story became common (we experienced this annoying lag around the How-To Geek office immediately after the upgrade).
One of the theories was that the addition of the Google Plus button to every article was causing memory issues. Geeks Are Sexy tested the theory by blocking this address: plusone.google.com/u/0/_/+1/fastbutton using AdBlock. While people were reporting great success with that move (and you may find it works great too) we didn’t have any luck.
What did work for us was installing Chromeblock and, while visiting reader.google.com, clicking on the ChromeBlock toolbar button and blocking Google +1. After that the 3-5 second lag vanished and browsing articles was as snappy as it had been.
Hit up the link below to grab a copy of Chromeblock.
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Comments (15)
Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 11/17/11
Oh wow that is a major speed increase
I had to use http://plusone.google.com/u/0/_/+1/fastbutton to get AdBlock to work correctly.
Thank you for this. The lag and the missing share buttons are two things I hate about their UI change. To share things out now, I made my own “Send To” button, then have it sent to the Delicious API where it’s bookmarked and shared. Not quite as easy as before, but it gets the job done.
That was a great tip! I had started using Firefox just see if the lag was caused by Chrome…Adblock worked perfectly.
best. tip. ever. thank you.
anyway to make this work with FF?
What I did: I selected the whole frame, containing the +1 button, alongside with tags and I dont remember the other two things, right-click and AdBlock-ed it(the frame with all sharing mumbo-jumbo). Now fast like it used to be :)
I hope this helps someone
What deckoff said. Excellent tip!
Excellent tip! the AdBlock trick worked with me.
Reader has many other things wrong with it too since the redesign, and there’s a cottage industry of userscripts out there to remedy the problems. This one’s terrific, but there are many to choose from:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/116931
Thanks, I am so sick of having to install things and find work-arounds to fix Google products that worked well and were attractive before Google screwed them up.
nice tip rick…liking that userscript
(an it works well with google reader colorful list view userscript)
yay..got my oldishy style(fast) google reader back now
Oh my God!!!
This Fixed it! Thank you so much!!
Worked like a charm for me from the day you posted this until a couple of days ago. Looks like google changed the URL or something so its not blocked anymore. Their new one doesnt lag as much as it did originally but still more lag than when it was blocked.
Yeah, they changed it to https instead of http. Update the filter and it will work again.