You might say that Pubsubhubhub is the logical extension of the Google Reader concept. It allows you to "read" those feeds programmatically and enables the cont

You might say that Pubsubhubhub is the logical extension of the Google Reader concept. It allows you to "read" those feeds programmatically and enables the content site to notify Google Reader of updates so they get there quicker. Also, anyone can choose to be a hub, not just Google Reader. There's your simple and well tested solution wrapped in a standard for anyone to implement.