After the very vocal complaints about the recent Google Reader update, we are starting to see some changes in response to the negative user feedback. The first one was design-related – the team brought back the blue color for links – and today I noticed a new sharing button for Google+, complete with the new, all-red icon. If you’re wondering what’s the difference between this one and the +1-button available since launch, well, it’s a click: ‘g+ Share’ immediately opens the pop-up with the link preview and circle selector, no need to click +1 twice – or worry that the click will appear in the public list of sites you plus-one-d. This also marks the comeback of the keyboard shortcut for sharing: the familiar <Shift>+s combo will now trigger this Google+ sharing button. It’s still no one-click-sharing like before – more like ‘Share with note’ – but it’s nice to see some of the problems addressed. 
One is left to wonder what is the purpose of the +1-button after this update… I think it would be more useful to show the number of +1’s somewhere next to the title of the feed (especially in list view); that would serve as a signal to the user which articles are more interesting in a long list of unread items, in a way similar to the current PostRank extension.
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