My test of Google Reader only lasted a day. Serious RSS readers will find fundamental usability problems with the GR approach.

I currently use FeedDemon to monitor 61 RSS feeds. I don't have the time or desire to read 61 feeds worth of posts every day, so I scan headlines, read the posts I want, and mark the rest as "read" so I don't have to see them again. FeedDemon makes this "river of news" approach to RSS reading very easy with its surfer style. I don't need a feed reader, I need a feed scanner. A client that makes me "read" all posts is far too restrictive. And that's the problem with Google Reader.

Google Reader makes me read every post before it gets marked as "read" and sent to the bit-dumpster. An email client that made you read all your spam before you could delete it would drive you bonkers, but that's exactly what GR is doing here.

I had hoped that GR would fulfill the promise of fast-feed-access-from-any-networked-computer in the same way Gmail has for email.  But I've also known FeedDemon's author Nick Bradbury for years. You won't meet a nicer guy or a better software developer/designer. It felt sorta treasonous to consider a switch away from FeedDemon. Lucky for me I won't have to deal with any inner-conflict because Google Reader is not an option at this point.

Google Reader might work well for users who are just getting started with RSS but it is far too restrictive for anyone scanning more than a handful of feeds everyday.