There’s one setting in Google Reader called ‘Reformat lined web pages for mobile browsers.‘ which is VERY useful for me. And here’s the reasons:

1.Take Google Reader as a Proxy
By checking this option, I can read news from websites which provide feeds and are blocked in China, like *.blogspot.com. I do read news from Google Official Blog, actually.
2.Save Money When Connecting Via EDGE/GPRS
It’s true. And it’s done by decreasing the amount of downloading files while reformatting the web pages. See the following two pictures, left is orginal and right is the reformatted one:


Yes, you can see the later layout is a mass. Actually that’s because the CSS file which controls how the webpage’s layout and display will be has not been downloaded to your mobile browser, say my iphone’s safari.
Furthermore, if there’s some flash ads in the original page, they won’t be downloaded, either.
In other words, the number of downloading bytes from the server to your browser is less than a normal page visit before reformatted. So, your monthly data usage is less and you cost less, too.
A greedy request here: Can Google Reader turn the reformatting option on when it detects the current net connection is via EDGE/GPRS while off via Wifi? You know, when cost is not a problem anymore, i’d love to see an CSS-based clean web page