I've actually been a little grateful to them for closing down. When they did, I went all over trying out the alternatives. If they hadn't shut down I never would have noticed that there were better choices out there.

Now I'm on Newsblur (a lot of good things to say about other alternatives, but this is the one I settled on). With Google out of the way, there is now a chance for small success like them (and Feedly and Old Reader, etc) to get some market share and pull in some revenue.

It has not only turned out to be painless but beneficial. And it's given me a healthier outlook on relying on Google. That is, I don't.