Google needs to think of G+ as a network, not as a destination

Google just doesn't get it.  They had a good social thing going with Google Reader, but they had to mess it up.  Here's an email that someone sent to my wife:

Please forward this link to Lakshman ... Previously, we used to share good articles via Google Reader. That service has been disabled now ...
Sent to you via Google Reader
Karachi to Bombay to Calcutta | History of Flight | Air & Space Magazine

I used to follow him on Google Reader.  Anything he shared was sure to be good and here's the clincher: I would see it when I was in the mood to read longish articles.  Google killed the share/follow feature on Google Reader, killing the one social thing they actually did well.

Instead, Google has replaced it with two buttons:  a +1 button and a G+ share button.  The problem with these is that there is no way to subscribe to someone's +1s on G+ -- there is no RSS feed for it.   And the G+ share is simply too invasive. While I do want to hear status updates from all my friends, I don't really care to read all the articles that all my friends post. I know which ones have reading tastes similar to mine.

Instead of thinking of G+ as a destination, Google would be better served to think of it as a network. With different clients and different services.  And Google Reader would be the client of G+ when it comes to reading longish articles.  Such an architecture would be a lot better than what they have now.