Reader-Blogger-Plusser

While I had previously mentioned about Blogger being the most neglected of all Google acquisitions, and lamented (here and here) over Google Reader not getting its due share of attention by its owners, looks like the Big G has finally paid heed.

This, however, comes at a price.

Last week, Google announced upcoming changes to Reader on the Official Google Reader Blog. Google Reader is finally ready for a makeover to match the metamorphosis Google started Q2 this year.

The sad part the same blog post announced, is the decision to discontinue friending, following, sharing posts, and commenting on them from within the Reader. Instead, you will be able to share your posts on your Reader-specific-circles on Google Plus.

For me, Google Reader is the most-used web app and Android app today, and links shared by friends and people I follow form a hand-picked, human-curated list of posts that are really interesting to read. Some of these posts would introduce me to new blogs I would later subscribe to. Subscriptions from links shared on Google+ has been rare, plus there is considerable friction involved in moving from one app to another if one were to do so.

For many subscribers to RSS feeds via the Reader, this news has been criticized and protested against. Here are a few photos of people doing so outside the Google's DC office, and here is a blog post by an Iranian explaining why does it matter for Iranians, and other similar countries where the government filters social websites.

Another announcement last week by Google was the integration of Google+ profiles with Blogger. This would mean your readers would now be able to access your publicly shared items on Google+.

Though not acknowledged by Google, there are speculations in the blogosphere about other integrations, like, publishing a post on blogger will automatically post it to your Google+ stream as well, and comments on your Google+ will be integrated with comments on your actual post, and the comments can be seen at one place. Blog commenting is one of the few places where Facebook is, and Google+ is not. Integration with their own blogging service may be the beginning.

While the Reader features have not been rolled out yet (though the official update last week said next week), the feature to replace your Blogger profile by Google+ profile is already available for Blogger in Draft, and will be migrated to the regular blogger in the upcoming weeks.

There have been no reported protests against this Blogger change, but since Google+ does not allow profiles with pseudonyms, this would affect bloggers who write under a pen-name, if you will. Google has acknowledged this, and therefore made this change optional, unlike the Reader changes that are forced upon helpless readers.

With Google Buzz going off the track, and now Reader and Blogger being integrated with Google+, looks like the search giant does have some plans to support its social networking app gradually establish a place on the web led by Facebook.