13 March 2013 Google announced they they are shutting down Google Reader. It was a very sad day. Actual shut down date will be 1 July 2013.
Years before I started to use Google Reader, I've tried to live with standalone desktop RSS applications. It just doesn't work for me. I've moved to other PC, I've changed the OS, I always had to be conscious about my feeds database.

Cloud RSS reader from Google (just like cloud Email client from Google: gmail) was a real gamechanger. I've went there and never looked back. I believe every person, who want to be on the edge of something, be it programming or mmorpg gaming, must follow theme media. If you don't follow your theme bloggers, you will miss so much bleeding edge information! Of course it takes a while to gather quality profile of theme resources, my experience is it takes 2 years to dive deep enough into a new topic. And of course you wouldn't want to loose such hardly earned asset.

Moving from Google Reader — where to? I will not make another "5 best rss readers" overview. I'll just tell you what I ended up with.

Favorite cloud RSS reader of mine: The Old Reader

I think you will like it too: The Old Reader.
No fancy disturbing "feed compiles" like in Feedly, easy to use like Google Reader, works well even on my Windows Phone 7 (don't buy windows phone; it was a mistake).
Feeds can be imported from Google Reader.
Everything is just great and simple about this rss reader. It just works. No learning curve.

On a minus side I can only notice it updating feeds not as often. I have few weekly feeds there, and 4 times of 5 when I open TheOldReader and I know article should be up, it's not in the interface yet. But I just simply press Refresh button and it appears in a second. Not an issue for me.

I think RSS is an essential tool of every professional. If you are not using it yet, you should give it a try!