Google Reader always had a social side to begin with, in the form of allowing users to share content and email them to others, they also already had features to share items with friends and view friends shared items.

However they have now taken the social side to a new level with the introduction of the ability to follow other people who are using Google Reader.

However there arises a problem where users may not want to share their content with others, to address this issues, Google Reader has something called as private profiles.

Private profiles will allow users to control who they share their content with.

Users can also add their shared items to their Google Profile page, which users can customize to use a vanity URL.

If you have been using social networking for sometime now, you might be aware of the ability to like or favorite updates from your friend. Google Reader too has added a new feature to allow other users to mark content shared by you as favorites.

Another feature that Google Reader has borrowed from social networking is the ability to allow your friends and followers to comment on content you share.

On the whole the changes definitely makes Google Reader more social than aware, the features are pretty similar to other social networking sites, so there is not much learning element there, however it would definitely make feed reading something different and unique.

What are your thoughts about these changes? Do let us know through your comments.

Following, liking and people searching [Official Google Reader Blog]