I'm no longer "sharing" via Google Reader

Update: MicroPersuasion offers a way to share items without actually "sharing" items.

After reading posts at Wise Bread and The Consumerist, I've "unshared" all of the previously shared items in my Google Reader and removed the Google Reader widget from my sidebar. Apparently Google decided to broadcast all shared items to everyone in a user's Google Talk list (and contacts are "auto-added" to Google Talk even if you've never actually chatted with them). Google did this without warning, and without providing any opt-out features. The only options are to remove people from your contacts list or to unshare the items. I've opted for the latter.

Will at Wise Bread warns that this act by Google may simply be a sign of things to come, as Google tries to crush Facebook. I'm afraid he may be right, but I'm not ready to give up using Google Reader yet, simply because of how many blogs I can read because of it. But I'll probably try to minimize my use of Google in other ways - just in case.