Google plans big changes for Reader

Friday, 21^st October 2011 18:08 BST (Europe/London)
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Google is planning to strip some features from its Reader to boost the Google+ social network. In a blogpost, the company revealed that the sharing features on its RSS news reader would soon be removed. Instead, anyone wanting to share or highlight posts on blogs and websites will have to do so via integrated Google+ tools.

Reader, like many other Google services, will also get a new look in the next few days. The blogpost by Google software engineer Alan Green said that the changes would be coming to Reader "in the next week". The first change will be the re-design to change how it looks and then it and Google+ will be brought "closer together". What this will mean, said Mr Green, is that Reader's own-brand social features, which allow users to share items they find interesting, will disappear. Instead, anyone wanting to friend, follow or share items will have to do so via the corresponding Google+ tools. Mr Green acknowledged that these changes might mean some people decide Reader "is no longer for you". To help those that want to switch Google said it would beef up the export tools so it gets easier to take their feeds with them. "Your data belongs to you, after all, and we want to make sure you can take it with you," said Mr Green. To help people switch ExtremeTech published a short list of six potential replacements for Reader that included NetVibes, Feedly and FeedDemon. The changes to Reader are one of many tweaks Google has made to its services. These started with slight tweaks to the logos on the main search page and will continue with a revamp of GMail that will overhaul its look and feel. The news of the GMail changes were leaked via a video accidentally put on YouTube. This was removed, but Google watchers managed to get copies and post it again.