The new Reader is FINE. The only sharing tool I used on the old Reader was the email button, which Reader still has. Honestly, I still don’t know where that “Share” button shared to (Buzz?).

I LOVE that I can +1 from inside reader. Believe it or not I have been going from Reader to the actual pages themselves JUST so I could +1 (the ability to curate Google search for your G+ connections continues to be massively underutilized by most people, in my opinion).

We can also share to G+ from inside Reader, which is great too. If I’m that interested in sharing something that comes to me through Reader someplace other than G+ it’s easy enough to do that on my own. We can’t reasonably expect Google to facilitate with their tool sharing to other platforms.

Finally, I’m glad Reader still has the stars. +1 can be used to bookmark pages too, but there are times when I want to bookmark something without also associating it with me in the search engine.

All of this to say I regard the changes as value added. If I were not an avid G+ user, I would probably be indifferent to them.

Here’s an experimental RSS reading system I’ve been developing (undergoing alpha testing & calibration now). It uses a keyword-based scoring system to color-code the stories according to importance and relevancy. The RSS feeds addresses and keywords may easily be reconfigured. The page design degrades well enough to be read easily on a tiny mobile phone screen, and expands so as to use space more effectively on a larger desktop screen. Hover your mouse pointer over a title and you’ll see more detail about what the article is about.

I developed this system after finding that in my efforts to keep up with real news (including current computer security bulletins, business & travel disruptions, natural & humanitarian disasters etc.) I was becoming swamped in:
* Celebrity gossip
* Filler stories e.g. historical retrospective
* Journalistic navel-gazing
* Opinion, propaganda and advertisements disguised as news stories.

Good bye to all of that! I no longer feel like I’m drowning in information, or unduly distracted from my work. I’m no longer subverted by a nervous news-reading tic, frightened of missing something important. With the color-coding, I’m using both my left and right brain hemispheres to read the news!