Bloglines resurrected

It appears Bloglines has been saved from oblivion. After moving my feeds to Google Reader (complaining the entire time) and adjusting to the new service, an email from Bloglines/Ask.com team announced the service has been purchased by MerchantCircle. The email read in part:

"We have some exciting news to share about the Bloglines service! As you may have heard, Ask.com (http://ask.com/) has entered into an agreement with MerchantCircle (http://www.merchantcircle.com/) who has agreed to keep Bloglines up and running. Stay tuned over the coming months as MerchantCircle works to improve the Bloglines service by creating a richer and more local user experience." -- Bloglines / Ask.com

This creates a feeder quandary; do I continue with Google Reader, a service I am not thrilled with using, or return to my vacated Bloglines account? Since it appears my account will remain active, I may just wait and see what they have to offer. In the mean time, here is more information about the agreement:

• Bloglines
• MerchantCircle to Take Over Operations of the Popular Bloglines Platform
• MerchantCircle to Revitalize the Bloglines Service
• Exclusive: Bloglines Will Be Resurrected By IAC-Funded MerchantCircle

As detailed in the final link, TechCrunch reported this exclusively yesterday afternoon (my TechCrunch feed must have faltered). They provided a few more details:

"For all you loyal Bloglines users (the site has 2.7 million users), don’t fret. MerchantCircle will be keeping the former standalone service in place for non-MerchantCircle users, at the RSS platform’s present URL and Smith assures the the transition will be seamless for previous users (i.e. same log-ins and UI). One notable feature that will be missing is the Clippings feature, and users won’t be able to merge their saved clippings to the new platform. MerchantCircle will also offer Bloglines users customized local RSS feeds that users can opt into for hyper local news and deals. Smith adds that Bloglines has been tweaked slightly for a “richer, faster experience.”" -- TechCrunch, 11/4/10, Leena Rao