There's a really easy solution here. Google should just donate the Google Reader application to the Apache Foundation or another open source initiative so that

There's a really easy solution here. Google should just donate the Google Reader application to the Apache Foundation or another open source initiative so that others can host their own. In fact, it was a mistake to shut down the service without also announcing that they were open sourcing it simultaneously. Look at all the bad PR that's floating to the top of HN right now. They open sourced Google Wave around the same time they shut it down, and that was a far less popular and useful service. It avoided a lot of the bad PR that the Reader shutdown is causing, however.