Google Reader facelift and Google+ integration coming soon

Until now, Google Reader, still a wellspring of equal parts inspiration and unread items guilt for info junkies in the Twitter age, has firmly held its ground while its Docs, Search, Gmail, and Maps brethren have been redesigned. Google announced Thursday, though, that the utilitarian, RSS hose of Google Reader will be brought in line with the lighter, more “designed” UI already seen across most of Google’s products. More importantly, perhaps, is the inevitable Google+ integration that will be rolling into your feeds. In less than a week, Google will be shutting down many of Reader’s social features (e.g. friending, following, and shared link blogs) in favor of funneling your social actions into Google+‘s Circles and +1’s. Sure, a design upgrade is much-needed as Reader turned 6 earlier this month, but shuttering all of the social features for what’s largely a small group of power users is going to make for a bumpy ride.