If you are running your feeds through Feedburner, you should know that Google bought that service in 2007.
Now they are making the next step, moving the feeds from Feedburner.com to feeds.google.com.
And you have to follow… and you should do it before the end of February 2009.
How? well there is nice instruction written by Michel Martin from Pro Blog Design on How to Move from Feedburner to Google
I just moved my Feeds over to my Google account and it is really easy and you cannot !! go back!
The analytics are nice, although I cannot click on the time line anymore to go to the statistics of my readers, you now have to use a drop-down menu to choose that date.
But you can see the mail addresses of the people who subscribed via the Feedburner email option.
So that is nice, there are however also a few drawbacks…
Even with the Smart-feed options active, you now just get a limited number of options if you want to subscribe to my feed:
So it seems Google is now cashing in on the Feedburner service and using it to promote their own services and adverts.
Why the move from Feedburner to Google feeds?
Here are some ideas that are on my mind that might be the reasons for Google to force this move upon us Feedburner users:
- Getting the feed data into the central Google index would mean easier and faster integration into the search results pages (well that would be nice:-))
- Monetizing the feeds by adding an easy way to integrate adsense adverts (lets see if that works?)
- Getting more grip on spammers that use a lot of feeds via Feedburner to spam the search index
- Promoting their own feed reader instead of giving people the choice of their favorite feed reader service
- Promoting the use of Google personal page to integrate feeds instead of offering the option to using services like Netvibes
- Taking away the second email subscription option and instead driving people to wards Google mail.
All these reasons will have a large impact on some of the services and companies that where integrated or build on the Feedburner service…
Can you think of any other evil and non-evil reasons, please post them in the comments.
I would love to read your ideas on the reasons for this move.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for sharing my link there. I’m glad the move went smoothly for you, it was a lot bumpier for quite a few. My feed subscriber count is down to 0 today because of it… :(
@Michael: Thank you for your post, made the move a lot easier.
My subscriber numbers were als down, but are now back to the normal values
Hello,
I too am wondering about other options for feed management. I don’t put ads in my feed nor do I really try to monetize my blog because the reason I write it is primarily as a service for public educators and to build reputation for consulting work. That said, when FB fails I feel like I’m losing contact with my subscribers who are crucial to building a good brand.
@marblehost, I don’t see a Blog or RSS feeds on your link… but you must be talking about an other Blog you write on then.
It is not FeedBruner who is failing, it is just moving into the Google domain.
You also don’t need to use advertisments in your feed, it is just an option like it was on Feedbruner.com since they were taken over by Google.
Google only is promoting it a lot harder then before.
So just keep using the service as it is on Google and you will keep your feed readers and can continue building your Brand.
I run a DS-related podcast and ever since I’ve moved the feed as instructed by Google and Feedburner I’ve had nothing but problems. It takes longer for newer episodes to obtain enclosures – even when re-synching. There’s no way to check the actual feed content via the Feedburner interface – in my case my feed now shows up in Sage and I’m forced to add it as a bookmark. Even then I’m more disconnected than ever from my feed.
iTunes has stopped picking up the episodes and I’m no longer able to fix the problem. I’m running out of creative desire to continue researching and putting out new episodes because the feed is broken. I’ve started looking for other methods of podcast delivery as I’m not podcasting for money but only for entertainment. I’ll post again if the situation changes but for now it looks like Libsyn for me…
thanks for your info. So far I’m not usign feedburner before but among my friend using it. Hopefully i start at feed.google.com
thanks