Back in the day, there were desktop RSS readers in many forms, and a paid new browser, Opera 7.0 ($10, I still have my license somewhere) with built in RSS read

Back in the day, there were desktop RSS readers in many forms, and a paid new browser, Opera 7.0 ($10, I still have my license somewhere) with built in RSS reader and email client, and torrent client, among other things... However, the problem was a missing synchronisation of readed entries between your home and office PC. Mobile device was not a thing back then but slowly started main stream adoption. I mean, very few had smartphones. Google reader was revolutionary, solving this exact problem for free and mobile app quickly followed. It caused almost all offline RSS readers to decay and starve to death. And then few years passed by, and this is the moment they pull the rug, but the damage was done. Luckily, Feedly and others quickly emerged, and smartphones were a thing. Also, some self hosted RSS readers came to existence and get polished.