Google Reader stops updating private feeds (opens in new tab)

I have been a regular user of Google Reader and love it... However, I've noticed in the last couple of months that every now and then, there are some hitches - either new feeds are not shown or the site suddenly slows down like anything... On doing some quick search Google, I realise it's not just me.. Time to move to other service I guess...

I haven't had any of these problems, but I would really like to have similar filtering capabilities to gmail. I hope they're not abandoning it, I use it daily.