I hope you're right. Still, a lot of my complaints would need to be addressed with significant changes to the service (changing how we are notified of replies

I hope you're right. Still, a lot of my complaints would need to be addressed with significant changes to the service (changing how we are notified of replies & mentions, de-coupling Reader & Buzz and perhaps Gmail & Buzz, uncluttering the UI, showing fewer strangers). I can't think of any Google product that was ever fundamentally changed on this scale. Wave would be a good example of a service that could really use a rethinking of the UI (there are at least 4 or 5 ways to dismiss a Wave: Archive, Mute, Delete, Mark as Read, Mark as Spam, for example), but it hasn't gotten it, and I am pessimistic that this will ever happen.