> With Google Reader, you were locked in Google's ecosystem. Without Google Reader, you are free to use whatever RSS client you can find. This is (or was) a fa

> With Google Reader, you were locked in Google's ecosystem. Without Google Reader, you are free to use whatever RSS client you can find. This is (or was) a false dilemma. You could, with Google Reader, use a vast multitude of RSS clients: you didn't have to use Google Reader proper. And, because nearly everyone supported Google Reader as a common sync API, you could switch between clients without losing your place or your data. Want to try X flavor-of-the-month RSS app? No problem: just log in with your Google account. Don't like it? No problem either: switch back to your other RSS client and everything—even what articles you've read and starred—are right where you left off. Now, there's at least a half dozen competing and incompatible sync APIs and numerous perfectly-adequate RSS clients rendered obsolete because they haven't been updated to support other sync services. Because of the lack of a common and ubiquitous sync API, choosing an RSS client now that Google Reader is gone will be more locked down than before, at least for the foreseeable future. Which is Marco's point: companies don't want you to be able to freely move your data around. They want you to use their service. Yes, there's more choice, but choosing one service over another winds up making it harder to make a different choice down the line.