Some gadgets have social features so interact with friends who also use the same gadget. For example there could be a gadget that lets you search for and watch YouTube videos and friends you allow can see what videos you watched. Those gadgets are going away. You Chat will still be there and gadgets that interact with third-party social sites will still be there too.
"we will remove iGoogle's social features on January 15, 2012. iGoogle itself, and non-social iGoogle applications, will stay as they are."
Are they referring to Google Chat or are they referring to iGoogle widgets that have "social features" (e.g. Twitter widgets, Facebook widgets, etc.)?