The Death of Google Reader

I was crushed yesterday when I logged into Reader and saw that unholy announcement about Google shutting down Reader on July 1st. I have been using blogger for years now. I literally check it every single day and it's how I stay up-to-date with all the blogs I love. Before I got married, I joined Reader to keep up with all the wedding blogs out there. For a few months prior to that, I just used Bloggers "Blogs I Follow" tool but I hated how unorganized it was and time consuming it was. So I started using reader on March 13, 2009. Since then I have used Reader to sort through and peruse 40,519 posts.
As soon as I saw the announcement, I started researching alternatives for keeping up with the blogs I love. The first one that I knew of was Flipboard.

I had used it before for viewing Reader on my phone and they do have the option to manually add individual sites. The problem is this is very time-consuming and gets very disorganized since it only displays one blog per tile. You can't sort blogs into categories or folders. The bright side to this, is that I have had to to reevaluate which blogs to follow to narrow the numbers down.
After just a few hours of use, I have enjoyed some of their pre-curated categories. That is actually how I came across these 2 posts on other alternatives since Flipboard only solves the phone side of reading not the computer end.
Google Reader is Dying but We Have 5 Worthy Alternatives
Google Reader is Shutting Down; Here Are the best Alternatives
These articles gave me options to check out. Here is what I think of them so far:

Netvibes - Seemed too business-minded and techie. I read blogs for the prettiness and inspiration. Netvibes just doesn't seem to facilitate that for me. If I'm wrong please let me know and I will give it a shot :-/

Newsblur - Slow loading probably due to influx of new users. I am currently previewing a free account with only 12 active sites, because I am not sure I am willing to pay $24/year for it. I will test for a bit to see. It seems a lot like reader but not free :( I do like that you can see how each post originally appeared though. But it wasn't loading the latest posts from every blog I was following :(

The Old Reader - This seemed to be the most promising since I loved the interface from brief peaks I saw. But it was very slow to activate because of a huge queue from influx of new users (over 4000 people ahead of me) and now it seems to be completely down :( Hopefully they will get their server situation straightened out soon and I will be able to really see what it is like.

Taptu - Weird interface! Didn't like how streams were organized at all. Everything was just lumped together unorganized or all spread out and cluttered.

Pulse - Slow to set-up since I have to manually resubscribe to all my sites like in Flipboard. It seems a lot like Flipboard actually but for my computer which I kind of like. It really plays on the visual aspect of blogs. I like that it has categories though instead of showing each site individually. But I have had issues loading some content. I hope that will clear up with time as they improve their servers for all the new members. Another negative is that you can only follow 12 sites per category. But that just means I need to sort things better so maybe it's not a negative after all.

I also am trying Bloglovin' since it was recommended on A Beautiful Mess. I have barely set it up so I'm not sure if I can organize my blogs at all or if they remain one big blog roll that I have to click through everyday. That always frustrates me since I like to read different topics at different times of the day so I like looking at my Home Decor blogs all at once and then my Couponing ones. I did claim my blog though so Follow my blog with Bloglovin.

The problem with all of these is that there are like thousands (if not millions) of Reader users doing the same thing as me and their servers just can't handle the simultaneous traffic. So I haven't been able to really test to see which I like best. I think The Old Reader, Pulse, and Bloglovin' are the most promising and hopefully I will be fully transitioned by July 1st to one of them or something even better. 

One of my favorite features of Reader was search. I could use it when I remembered a post I liked but didn't know who wrote it or when looking for a specific coupon or sale. It filtered through all the blogs I followed and helped me narrow down what I was looking for. I don't know if any of the alternatives out there has that feature and that makes me so sad. I don't know how I will stay organized and quickly find old posts now :(
I think I am going to have to start using Pocket more and get better about tagging and sorting the posts I save so that I can sort through them better later.

I've heard the claim that the death is due to lack of RSS popularity and sites like Twitter and Facebook. I don't buy that. There would not be the uproar there's been in the blogosphere if that were true. And Facebook and Twitter don't keep me updated with the things I want to read from the people I want. They just throw a bunch of stuff at you from people who others think I should be interested in. I don't have time to wade through all that to find what really interests me. I want to stick to my tried and true bloggers.
Do any of you guys use Reader and if so what will you be switching to?