Google Reader has undergone some changes. The objective seems to have been to simplify things and give the whole thing a cleaner look and feel. While I’m sure the changes will still receive their share of critics, I for one am generally pleased with the update. Let’s take a look at the changes.

First off, if you can’t find something that is supposed to be there:  

- The "Refresh" button from the subscription list is now in the Subscriptions options menu or triggered by simply clicking on the word "Subscriptions"

– The "Show all – updated" controls are now in the Subscriptions options menu.

– The "Add subscription" button has moved to the top of the navigation pane.

Now, they have changed the design itself slightly, and I think the cleaner look and feel was accomplished by this:

(old)

(new)

They have turned the navigation menus in the left-hand side bar into their own windows and made them collapsible. This is easily my favorite change they have made. It allows me to get a better view of my actual feeds by minimizing the top two menus. In addition, the shared items section is now its own window, and can be treated as its own section accordingly. Each section also has its own options menu.

 One feature that apparently a lot of people were asking for, is the ability not to see how many unread feeds you have waiting for you. Some people feel like this makes reading feeds a chore, which I can understand, although, I still prefer to know how many I have unread even if I know there is no possible way I will will actually get through them. This can be found in the options for the main feeds section.

 Last but not least, they have improved the "feed bundles". They used to bundle feeds by hand, but now have a program making bundles for them. They say there is now a "much richer and interesting set of subscriptions for you to choose from." You can find the bundles under the "Browse for stuff" link in the main navigation window.

Google users are not always thrilled when changes are forced upon them, a fact driven home when they rolled out the iGoogle changes. These changes are far less intrusive than those though, and I don’t expect nearly that amount of complaining over these. For those who want to give feedback, however, you can do so in this discussion group.