Google Reader: Power Users Lose

Jerry Fahrni: “When Google finds a new article on the web that contains one of my keywords it sends it to my Google Reader feed where they sit patiently until Iâ€ m ready to read them. This is a great way to find information that I would have otherwise missed.”

Most users of Google Reader are bemoaning the loss of sync between devices. There are already good choices for sync. That’s not the biggest problem for some Reader users. In the case of my brother, he’s a power user of the service. Google Reader isn’t just about RSS feed reading or syncing feeds and feed states across devices, it has advanced features that will not likely be replaced by other readers.

That’s the big loss for some.

On the flip side it’s great for RSS feeds and feed services. As Dave Winer is fond of saying “Let a thousand flowers bloom!” Hopefully we’ll see a new sync API bloom from the mothballing of Reader.

Brent Simmons has started an RSS Sync Mailing List. It’s worth keeping an eye on.