We had the same issue with Reader. They made it so difficult to share stories with just the people on the list. Not to mention loss of ease of use of the commenting system. So some buddies of mine and I got together and started building a replacement. It largely looks and works like the old Google Reader. It didn't take us long to do. With the exception of Google Search, I'd say none of their sites/products are irreplaceable, and some just down right woeful (I'm looking at you Picasa! I want a damn image backup, not an image sharing service!).