Google neuters Google Reader

Image via CrunchBase

“So starting today we’ll be turning off friending, following, shared items and comments in favor of similar Google+ functionality.” WTF?

These were some of the most powerful, albeit underutilized features of Google Reader. I consider the ability to synthesize my own rss feeds and publish directly from Reader to be amongst it’s most powerful features. No, as you can see, users can no longer create clips, blogrolls, feeds or share folders with other users! There hasn’t been a worse change since New Coke…

Thanks to this brilliant maneuver, I can no longer use Google Reader as a social bookmarking tool to share content as I travel around the internet. I can no longer autopost my Google Reader shared items to Twitter. I can no longer autopost my Google Reader shared items to the sidebar of my blog. I can, however send them to the shrinking number of active users in Google+. In short, Google has crippled my internet publishing workflow…

I’m going to continue to track this issue and stay on top of Google Reader changes for you — for me, there is no more important tool in my workflow and ‘thought leadership’ marketing. From where I sit right now, Google’s changes were stupid and short-sighted; they sacrificed the power of Google Reader to the untested and flagging Google+. I feel another Wave coming on — a wave of nausea…