That's a statement that cries out for analysis, although I'm not doubting you could be right still - it's not the kind of thing one just states without backing it up.

Reader was written using a bunch of proprietary Google tools, deployed on proprietary Google infrastructure and used a proprietary Google system for authentication.

It's hard to even imagine how it could have been split apart from the mothership at all.

Thanks!

Where is RSS now? Are there products that filled the niche left by Reader?

No. The technology died. Isn't this clear evidence that the product was dead in the water?

It's literally in a <link> element on the very website you're posting on, dude