I never got to try out Google Reader last week because the service was too slow, so I gave it a shot again this morning. My thoughts on the application pretty much identical to Dave Winer's thoughts on the application where he wrote

I tried the Google news reader again, this morning, after it had loaded all my feeds (it seems to take quite a few hours to do that).This is the second blog-related product they've come out with recently that appears not to have been touched by human beings before it was introduced to the world (the other was the ridiculous blog search). I think they need to start using their own stuff before releasing it. And maybe look at the competition for ideas. When you're first into a market there's an excuse for being so wrong. But the first of this kind of software shipped six years ago. To give you a comparison, Visicalc shipped in 1979. By 1985 we had been through two generations of spreadsheets with Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel. Google's reader is a huge step backward from what was available in 1999. The arrogance is catching up with them.

I actually tried writing my own review but gave up because it kept seeming too negative and I try not to snipe at products made by our competitors. Still, I am stunned that they let this application out of door in the shape it's in.