I don’t hate it as much as everyone else seems to — that old design looked old in 2005. But wow, that +1 button. Maybe they should just put it fully over the star with the next iteration. Or maybe they can make it big and blinking.

It just screams: “PLEASEEEE CLICKKKKK MEEEEE”. Maybe that’s an okay thing — it does make sense — Google+ needs more content. But this implementation also looks kind of tacky. Especially since all the other share buttons are buried in the “Send to” drop down. 

Ultimately, I doubt it matters all that much. Actual human beings are not going to use this new Google Reader any more than they used the old version. It’s purely a blogger/news junky tool.