sarahintampa

Count me as one of the people who hates having Google+ shoved in my face like this. I get that social didn’t work in GReader, but human curation for RSS served me better than any algorithm I’ve ever seen in the wild, Google or otherwise. I’m sorry to see it go. 

(Also - http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/20/google-reader-getting-overhauled-removing-your-friends)

parislemon:

Google is ripping out the underlying social stuff in Google Reader — stuff that never really worked anyway — and instead using their RSS reader as a way to spur Google+ usage.

Makes sense. I’m excited for the new design, which is comically old (and naturally will look nowhere near as good as Reeder).

Here’s the best part of this announcement though:

We recognize, however, that some of you may feel like the product is no longer for you. That’s why we will also be extending Reader’s subscription export feature to include the following items. Your data belongs to you, after all, and we want to make sure you can take it with you.

Translation: Many of you will hate having Google+ shoved in your face. Too bad. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. 

FWIW, I agree with this mentality. If you’re going to go for it, go for it.