Synchronization problem with record deletions

[Leif Neve]

You describe an algorithm for synchronizing another database with Google Person Finder as follows:

"If you need to keep another database synchronized with the Google Person Finder database, you can use the min_entry_date and skip parameters to download incremental updates. Use the latest entry_date you have previously received from Google Person Finder as the min_entry_date for your first request. Then take the latest entry_date in the batch you receive, and use it as the min_entry_date for your next request. Use the skip parameter to skip the records you already received that have the same entry_date."

Unfortunately, there is a border condition for which this does not appear to work currently. The situation is this: If someone deletes the most recently reported record, then when a client downloads the next group of records with skip=1, it skips the empty record and so fails to note that a record was deleted. If skip happens to be > 1, the problem extends to multiple records.