Google Replaces ‘Reader’ Link With ‘Photos’ In Gmail, Users In A Tizzy

More proof that RSS is on its way out, and the apocalypse is nigh: Google has seemingly replaced the top link to its RSS reader product, Google Reader, with a link to ‘Photos’ (Picasa) at the top of the Gmail web interface. To be clear, the link is still there, it’s just hidden behind the ‘More ▼’ link now.

Boy, that place has really started falling apart since Larry Page took over as CEO.

Sure, it’s a minor UI change, but that isn’t stopping users from going nuts about it on Twitter.

A couple of choice tweets:

Another user posits: “Where the F**k is my link to Google Reader in Gmail?!??! I’m sure they can see in Analytics that I use it every single day…”

And therein lies the problem, I think. You can customize Gmail to a degree, and – particularly for a free product – that’s really awesome, but you can’t yet change the order of the top menu items – and that’s what’s getting users riled up.

Maybe Google will listen to this vocal subset of users, maybe they won’t. But I think it may be better if we don’t wait to see what happens, and instead a TechCrunch-reading developer immediately starts coding a browser extension that puts the damn ‘Reader’ link back. Go!