Great Discussion on Quora on Why Google Shut Down Google Reader

"Reader has been fighting for approval/survival at Google since long before I was a PM for the product. I'm pretty sure Reader was threatened with de-staffing at least three times before it actually happened. It was often for some reason related to social: 2008—let's pull the team off to build OpenSocial; 2009—let's pull the team off to build Buzz; 2010—let's pull the team off to build Google+ ...."