It's good to have an opinion. Also I like short, focussed blog posts. But the assumption made is too simple to gain anything, neither for Google nor for the HN community. For instance, integrating product A into product B is a lot of work, additionally to maintaining each of the products separately. And to me it seems as if Google simply didn't want to maintain the software behind Reader anymore. This also means integrating it (more costs than just keeping it as it is) is not a valid option. Then it might not even have a positive influence, because there are likely many people who used G+ but not Reader (like me) and many users who used Reader and not G+. For those people the integration of a completely new tool is not different from adding X new features. And we all know that adding X new features does not improve any product, right?