That's exactly what I don't want. I have over 1000 feeds in google reader and I would want to be able to choose what alerts I get rather than see everything in real time. As if I don't already have an issue with ADD! Ideally we need an IMAP like solution for feed reading (newsgator offers something close, but is closed) and GR still only works with itself.

The main feed reader applet would be great if it picked up and was synced (read status) of my feeds from Google. That way you'd get a relatively non-invasive way to see the current stuff and an easy way to click through and read what mattered in realtime.