Google released the previously announced set of changes around G+ integration and UI updates today, and boy is it a disaster. Since the general changes were pre-announced last week, most of us were prepared for the letdown, but actually seeing how it works end to end has made several flaws abundantly clear. Let's start with the obvious.

Love the ease of RSS, but hate when feeds don't display the whole article, forcing you to click through just to read it?<br />
Regain control by entering the URL of a feed below and clicking the submit button to receive a full-text feed URL you can use anywhere.

Google Reader's “explore” feed has proven to be a more effective discovery tool. It displays the most-shared items on Reader, filtered by the user’s interests. Reader determines which popular items are relevant to you by analyzing the types of feeds you’re already subscribed to. It’s shockingly effective: I’m often unsettled by how well Google’s algorithms determine my tastes and interests. The “explore” feed may be the most effective news discovery service you’ve never used.

Hopefully that won’t happen. The furor around Flipboard, even in its limited infancy, demonstrates the demand for a social news application that offers both 1) a superior reading experience and 2) relevant news curated by our many online communities. Flipboard has already achieved the first--if they can nail the second, and prevail over server issues, Facebook lock-in policies, and regressive old media attitudes, they may have something paradigm-changing on their hands.

"We need to keep learning about Everything, not just about the technical skills common to our own field." http://bit.ly/9ytGXq #learning