More On Sync and RSS

Sync is key for feed readers got picked up by Dave Winer on Twitter here is what he had to say:

“Sync Is Key For Feed Readers (If so, then make web apps, and you’re done). http://4fj.r2.ly/" — @davewiner

And then Peter Rojas responded:

“@davewiner I need an offline mode for my RSS reader since I often read on the subway, so mobile app is important to me.” — @peterrojas

They went back and fourth a couple of times, but I think it boils down to the long term vs short term.

I am trying to write about what feed readers should do right now. People are looking for real alternatives, right now. Sync is still incredibly important for all the reasons I enumerated in the original article.

But, I have been told by learned people that most of what Dave Winer is talking about comes true. So, looking at this from his point of view I can see where he’s coming from.

Looking long, a few things are going to happen. The Internet will speed up. It will become more pervasive and your mode of consumption might converge. If that is the case then sync is less important. It’s totally possible that we will begin to converge upon HTML, or a common UI expression grammar. Again, if this is the case then sure a webapp could work.

Right now though, we don’t have much choice in the matter. We need to design something that can replace Google Reader and a key piece of that is sync.