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For me, this is a very scary question to even think about. I've been using FeedBurner since before they were acquired by Google and I've been pretty happy with it. But the question on many blogger's mind is will Google kill FeedBurner.
Matt McGee did a detailed write up on the signs on why he believes Google may indeed decide to no longer support and manage FeedBurner in the future. His reasons:
(1) They let the Japanese TLD of FeedBurner expire.
(2) FeedBurner's Blog & Twitter account were also recently shut down
(3) The FeedBurner support forums are dead and filled with spam
(4) It doesn't seem anyone at Google is putting any new features into FeedBurner
(5) Many people think RSS is dead and an old technology
For me, it isn't a huge deal. I use the FeedBurner MyBrand solution, so I control the domain and can switch it to my own RSS solution. But they do manage my email newsletter, which again, I can switch over to something custom or even switch back to FeedBlitz.
It is just a pain and I rather they keep it going.
What do you think?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
Guest
09/12/2012 01:10 pm
@Barry - any other free option for this?
Barry Schwartz
09/12/2012 01:11 pm
WordPress has RSS built in.
Ramesh Nair
09/12/2012 01:25 pm
We had some technical issues with Feedburner which never got answered, though my guys were trying different sources. All signs of a (feed)burnout.
Donna D. Fontenot
09/12/2012 01:53 pm
I use WordPress's built-in functionality, plus Feedblitz for email subscribers. Much better, imo, than Feedburner. Got rid of that a couple of years ago.
donthe
09/12/2012 02:04 pm
I'm really going to miss the free unlimited emails part of Feedburner. There is no other company which offers that. It's a shame Google totally screwed up on the Feedburner purchase. It's also a shame that they aren't devoting a minimal amount of effort to keep it running and fix the glitches. Why aren't they making an announcement? Why weren't they able to monetize Feedburner?
JonBishop
09/12/2012 02:28 pm
I've been telling people to use MyBrand ever since the option became available. I've always enjoyed the simplicity of Feedburner and how it handles emails subscriptions. I'll be sad if it ever really goes away.
phollows
09/12/2012 02:44 pm
But no RSS stats
phollows
09/12/2012 02:45 pm
My brand makes switchnig RSS services easy - that's how we switched CopyBlogger's feed to Feedblitz in one fell swoop. Folks should absoutely have their feed on their own domains and use CNAME (MyBrand), plugins or other similar approaches to redirect to a feed service.
phollows
09/12/2012 02:47 pm
hi Barry - if you'll forgive the plug, we have a Migration Guide for folks interested in looking for alternatives here: http://www.feedblitz.com/the-feedburner-migration-guide/ - we were also first to break the new about FeedBurner.JP here http://www.feedblitz.com/feedburner-shut-down-the-facts-and-tales-from-the-front-line/ and here http://www.feedblitz.com/what-happened-to-feedburner-jp-a-cautionary-tale/
Barry Schwartz
09/12/2012 02:50 pm
Sure, it is okay.
Norcross
09/12/2012 03:54 pm
It doesn't surprise me. They haven't done squat with it (other than the MyBrand) since they bought it in what...2007? RSS isn't dead (and probably never will be) but it's not on the forefront of anyone's mind. More often than not, I use it as a miniature data API. I'm a WordPress guy by trade, so I usually tell folks to use the native unless there is something absolutely necessary otherwise, as I've never seen accuracy from RSS subscriber numbers and don't see the value of them, since there's no analytics behind them to say if someone actually *read* the content.
phollows
09/12/2012 05:30 pm
The "reach" metric from FeedBurner and FeedBlitz tells you whether the content was read - it's analagous to email's open rate. A tracking image or a link must be interacted with to cause a "reach" to be recorded. I wll agree that FeedBurner's metrics have been unreliable. When Danny Brown moved over to Feedblitz we "found" an extra 8,000 subscribers that FeedBurner wasn't tracking. It may not be important for some sites, btu for others where audience size is critical to monetization and media kits, accurate metrics - and accurate feed metrics are part of that - are vital.
phollows
09/12/2012 05:31 pm
Thank you, sir. Appreciated.
Norcross
09/12/2012 05:37 pm
I know you work for (own, manage, whatever) Feedblitz, so I understand your willingness to jump in and trumpet the value of the reach metric. However, it doesn't take into account any sort of interaction, rather, just that it was loaded on an RSS reader and viewable. Unless I'm mistaken, a user scrolling mindlessly or clicking "read" after it's been loaded will still count as 'reached'. I could not agree more that accurate metrics are vital. But I've never seen RSS feeds be a part of metrics that matter. We probably run in different circles, but feeds don't really do much other than inflate the ego of sites that can now claim 'we have X number of readers'.
phollows
09/12/2012 05:45 pm
It's no better - or worse - than an email being viewed in Outlook preview pane and that causing an open counter to change. Obviously, what you use the metrics for, if anything, determines their value to you. I wouldn't describe a readership count as merely and ego-boosting number (that's what Klout is for ;) ) . It's very important for sites that monetize via ads. YMMV to be sure.
donthe
09/12/2012 06:16 pm
So maybe the writing was on the wall awhile ago? "Ever since Google bought FeedBurner I, and many others, have felt FeedBurner, as a service, has been slowly dying. Google proved us wrong yesterday when they announced a new beta version of the FeedBurner dashboard.The new dashboard is hot, kinda looks like Google Analytics and so on.Google said "the new interface provides real time stats for clicks, views, and podcast downloads, which means you can start seeing what content is drawing traffic from feed readers, Twitter, and other syndicated sources as it happens."The new interface can be accessed at feedburner.google.com/gfb. Here are some pictures:" The "New Beta FeedBurner Dashboard" which Barry writes about so eloquently,,,,,yeah, It disappeared without a mention from Google at the end of December 2011 See here: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/023149.html
Website Developers UK
09/13/2012 11:36 am
Is there anything similar to feed burner... Any ways thanks for the update.
Sonusmac
09/14/2012 04:46 pm
Its just sad but can't help other than using other services!
Sili
09/21/2012 03:39 pm
So, I guess the fact that I am showing 0 subscribers today means that they're going away? :-/
Jamie
09/21/2012 05:12 pm
With feedburners issues today (readers showing zero). I am starting to get worried that they will get rid of feedburner the way they got rid of picnik. I looked into feedblitz and based on my email subscribers, it would cost me $30 PER MONTH to use their service. That is a huge chunk of my blog income I am not willing to give up! It make me wonder, why do I even want email subscribers. The email subscribers just read my posts without clicking over and contributing to my page views. (My blog is a recipe/craft blog and I get most of my page views from pinterest, google and other blogs) What do you think?
Albab
09/26/2012 06:37 pm
I don't have any problem. I believe that if a visitor like my page he will bookmark me or remember my url and will come back...If i can really provide some values...
Thomas Svenson
10/03/2012 02:37 pm
Well, currently it isn't even possible to get MyBrand working. I have correctly configured CNAME feeds.[my domains] records, but when I add them to MyBrand two things happens. First I get this warning: "The domain you provided, "feeds.[example.com]," is not associated with a valid CNAME record. Its current CNAME record is: (not found). (If you just updated CNAME records with your domain host, keep in mind it may take several hours for those updates to be recognized.)" Note the "(not found)" part. An nslookup returns the correct values... Then the CNAME entry I should add in the DNS changes from "[random generated string].feedproxy.ghs.google.com" to "null.feedproxy.ghs.google.com". But if I then deactivate MyBrand it goes back to the first one. I have done some searching and found posts about the same issues dating back to 2009 at least. Makes me wonder if its even worth to keep use the service?!