I think what everyone is getting at here is to be smart about when to use git for deployment. Rsync is great for small static sites the same way git is. Now, I'm not going to use it on my medium to large size web app (actually I do for the testing server but that's another story). It's just another way to get a site deployed. I think its great for small static sites and prefer it over rsync for no other reason than I'm already using git and its just an extra git push when I'm ready. I actually use different remotes for deployment rather than a branching strategy.