Google wants RSS, has sights on FeedBurner
By Jonathan Schlaffer
Google needs to get into the RSS market and instead of making its own, why not just buy one? What is it with all these companies that don’t want to create their own tools instead they would rather buy it from someone else. Don’t even try and tell me that Google doesn’t have the talent necessary to create its own RSS system but I guess it’s just easier to buy it.
So it’s easier and Google wants to enter the RSS market, great so what better company to acquire than FeedBurner which is almost the standard when it comes to equipping your blog with RSS feeds, in fact, we use FeedBurner. Mashable thinks Google is going after FeedBurner.
Google has a habit of making all tiers of its programs available at no cost to everyone, remember when Picasa cost $20 then Google bought it and said, no, Picasa is going to be free and for the time being it remains the best iPhoto equivalent for PCs.
That isn’t to say all features of FeedBurner will be available to everyone for free but at the very least if Google does acquire it then plan to see expanded features in the free version. That’s just based on things Google has done in the past but does not necessarily mean it will do so with FeedBurner.
That being said, I do understand the importance of RSS but as for myself, I don’t use it, what’s so hard about visiting the websites you read on a regular basis manually anyway? Unless, you just read SO many sites that it’s impossible. Just bookmark the sites and visit them every day, is that so hard?
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Stumble It!
May 19th, 2007
I agree that RSS is the most overrated system out there. Visiting sites is fun, having the news just show up in one application is no fun. RSS is interesting in theory, but probably used FAR less by people then commonly thought.
May 19th, 2007
RSS is great. I don’t mind having all the updates from sites showing up in one reader, saves me a lot of time and that’s the point of it. Checking every site I read manually is such a waste of time, it’s like you’d stop by at your local post office every two hours to check if you have new mail. I don’t know how that’s more fun than having an efficient overview that’s delivered to you. “Overrated” is the last thought that would come to my mind in respect to RSS, personally I think it’s one of the best things to have happened to the web. I have about 34 feeds I’m currently subscribed to on my Netvibes page, most of which I read since I regularly delete those that I don’t touch. I really don’t want to check 34 sites a day manually, which seems unnecessarily tedious, and I don’t want to miss any of them either. So yeah, RSS all the way.
Back on topic, though, I wouldn’t welcome this acquisition. Google is starting to own too much of the web to be a neutral “do no evil” company forever.
May 20th, 2007
I gotta say, I’ve been on and off the “RSS bandwagon”, and I just can’t seem to stay on…I do have a couple feeds saved in rssfwd.com, and have been adding me and more to Google Reader, but it’s just sooooo much easier to go visit each site seperately..and yes, it’s FUNNER…Staring at the same double-paned window gets very boring…I kinda miss the lasso the donkey, shoot the bunny, etc flashy banner ads, you know?
May 23rd, 2007
It looks like there is some great info on the Confirmed Sale. It’s great to see a company like this be bought - I think google will be able to give it lots of great new features.
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