I hate Google Reader. I don’t mind using Outlook 2007 for reading RSS feeds, but it’s not something I can use on Linux and it’s not portable (online).

 

Here’s and idea to fix that problem. Use this viewer here: http://www.extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/feed-viewer/view.html

It is an ExtJS Feed reader that was developed by the ExtJS group. It’s not exactly easy to understand, but once you learn Ext you can update and change this so that multiple users can use it.

 

You would need to update it so that multiple users can create accounts and then add their own feeds. The unlimited commercial license for ExtJS is only $330. Not too bad.

 

Then all you need is a cool flashy font-end site to market this application. Bloglines has a cool front-end site that you could model (http://www.bloglines.com/)

 

The last thing you would have to do is to monetize the site. You can do this a couple ways:

I keep running across sites that I want to follow and read periodically but when I try to add them to my Google reader I get discouraged cause it’s such a mess. I only have 50+ feeds in there but its very difficult to organize them as cleanly as I can in Outlook 2007 or other feed readers.

 

So if anyone wants an almost surefire business opportunity this is one. In fact one could say that if it was done well, and you started building a following -within 6 to 12 months you would probably have Google approach you for a buyout. At the very least get Michael Arrington and his group to mention you on techcrunch.com – that should give you a good boost as well.