The UX needs work for sure..but think its better than longer blogs and Facebook stories. The interesting thing is that since it doesnt have ads on it now it feels clutter free. Not sure how that will change once Google decides to monetize G+. Right now they are in "establish the platform" phase and that is bound to change.
The content drowns in clutter, not even the readability plugin works... I wince in disgust every time I run into one of these abominations.