If you are using mac, try reeder(http://reederapp.com/mac/). It syncs with a lot of online rss readers (I use feedly and instapaper). But where it shines is its UX. It does what you need without any fluff and does it elegantly. All essential parts are there without showing million buttons. Keyboard shortcuts also work perfectly. It is the only app that I didn't feel any need to change settings after the first time.

I was using Reeder back when Google Reader was killed, and it was super easy for me to switch to Feedly as the back end — just export the subscriptions and import them into Feedly. Just like I didn't use Google Reader in the browser, I don't ever use Feedly in the browser, either.

It's a beautiful little app. Great native app on iOS, too.

I've found Feedly quite good - better in fact than I ever found Google Reader. I'm sure you have already tried it, but if nothing else, I'd be curious to know why you found it wanting.

That's the one I use. That's what I had in mind: doesn't reliably keep track of what's read and what isn't, has a bunch of add-on search functionality that prompts to upgrade. I'm not doing deep text search, I'm typing the name of the feed because I can't remember where I put it in the folders they mandate when I add something new.

I hear you. For what it's worth, if you're ok with a self-hosted alternative, tt-rss is alright (takes some fiddling to set up but it isn't awful, and pretty much just works after that). The web UI is very reminiscent of greader, but these days I mostly use one of the android clients people have used to talk to it.

tt-rss: https://tt-rss.org/gitlab/fox/tt-rss/wikis/home ttrss-reader: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ttrssreade...

I think OP meant physical objects, but nonetheless, I agree with you. You know a product is very well designed when people are still missing it years after its closure.

Have you tried https://feedbin.com/ ?

It came out as a response to the closure of Reader, and I actually prefer it. They've kept everything very simple.

There is also https://theoldreader.com which looks very much like Google Reader (plus it doesn't tend to share your 'private' posts on Google +!).

OMG, it is a blast from the past. I was fond of the Google Reader<->Google Buzz<->GMail integration. Most of my non-geek friends used that seamlessly. When Google+ replaced all those tools, my friends switched to FB. (and I switched to Twitter).

Newsblur. It's basically modern day Google Reader with improvements.

I've moved on to Feedly and then to Inorerader, but Google Reader was a wonderful feed reader. Nothing beats its search capability.

Digg Reader is ... okay