Yes it's a shame that Google Reader is going (Powering Down Google Reader), especially as I have been such a heavy user over the years, but for heavens sake its a free program. Yes Google has a few dollars in the bank, and could easily finance reader until the end of religion, but nobody is forcing them to do that, and its not like there aren't a plethora of alternatives on the web.
I am not sure if jumping on the latest Google Chrome extension is the best idea either, as swamping smaller (by comparison to Google Reader) companies (eg: feedley.com) makes them unable to handle a massive load. What happens if a smaller company gets 100's of thousands (or millions) of new users, they need to monetize for the increase in load or shut the doors. There really is no other way for them. Not taking a swipe at that business model, but at some point during their growth phase, someone has to put money in.
What options does that leave us, well still quite a few. As I mentioned there are a plethora of alternatives out there.
Top of my list right now has to be Opera Mail (feeds) which is built directly into the browser. Apart from the easy export from Reader and Import into Opera there are many other advantages, and until that feature is no longer in the browser or something better comes along it will do me just fine.
Cheers
Stephen (tech / geek / developer / web person... see Noely multi talented just like girls)
P.S. I wont even go into the fact that the LNP will relegate Regional Australians to second class citizens.
