It's interesting that a lot of these seem to be hosted solutions. I'm surprised people aren't switching to self-hosted webapps or standalone desktop applications. Why aren't people more worried about these services shutting down, even with memories of Reader painfully current?
I can sit back and watch people panic with smug superiority, since I never used Google Reader. I'm currently catching all of the blogosphere's latest and greatest in Mozilla Thunderbird.
Reading the comments, there are a few people who have seen the light, and are switching to (or building) desktop apps or self-hosted web apps.
Self-hosted? I have just migrated back to third-party hosting for much of my stuff because I was bored of maintaining my dedicated host. It was fine 99.5% of the time, but having someone else worry about availability just makes my life better. Consolidation, scale of economy and management. All for much the same reason I don't make my own electricity (although I am on the edge with that as well!).
Dedicated apps have been around forever, heck they owe their heritage to News Readers (before the binaries took over usenet). I have two laptops and a phone, so I couldn't use a stand-alone application for the 200 items I get a day.
As for "panic"? I didn't panic, I grieved and then found a replacement. It wasn't that hard and frankly it beats patching and maintaining myself, I have better things to do. I think that Google's decision was wrong because Reader was a good service, but I also think it has benefited many people because several companies and individuals have benefited from the fallout.
I can sit back and watch people panic with smug superiority, since I never used Google Reader. I'm currently catching all of the blogosphere's latest and greatest in Mozilla Thunderbird.
Reading the comments, there are a few people who have seen the light, and are switching to (or building) desktop apps or self-hosted web apps.