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Thing Labs, the company behind social media stream reader Brizzly, has been acquired by AOL, multiple sources have now confirmed. The startup is led by Jason Shellen, who managed the creation of the category-killing Google Reader years ago, and Ben Darnell, who was a key engineer in creating Reader.

It was just one of three major acquisitions by AOL announced today, including video site 5 Mins and of course market-leading tech blog TechCrunch. AOL has long been the home of some of the most popular social products (AIM) and destinations (Engadget) online. The addition of the expert stream team from Thing Labs is a bold move that will help the big media company compete in the era of Facebook and the News Feed.

Entrepreneur and Google Reader co-founder, Jason Shellen, has let us know about his latest venture in conjunction with Thing Labs, a name that is as ambiguous as it is stealthy.

Thier super secret new product, developed in conjunction with Shellen's Reader co-founder, Chris Wetherell, will be out at the end of June and is based on recently acquired technology from Wetherell. "We're not talking too much about it, but it is a new social media application that works with your existing networks, Twitter and a few others. We don't want to say too much more, but the technology gives us a really interesting interface." Shellen also revealed that another top-level new hire will be coming aboard soon.