As much as I’m happy for FeedBurner’s founders and investors, the company’s $100-million purchase by Google feels, well, wrong.
It seems wrong for Google, which dominates the search and CPC markets, will also establish itself as the leading RSS player. Not sure why but you know when deals feel right and you know when deals feel wrong. Don’t get me wrong, I can see why Google made this year. In fact, I’m surprised that another suitor hadn’t stepped up before. FeedBurner is not only the leading RSS publishing tool but its brand and RSS are increasingly intertwined. As well, FeedBurner has become a leading advertising service provider in RSS feeds. Nevertheless, I never thought a company has cool as FeedBurner would end up in the arms of Google. Then again, maybe money talks. $100-million is awful lot of dough, especially considering FeedBurner hasn’t taken in much venture capital. Here’s hoping Google somehow maintains FeedBurner’s spirit and cache but my feeling is it may just open the door for another competitor to emerge if people are looking for a Google alternative.
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I can certainly see what Google were buying, they now dominate the entire space (feedreader, analytics, RSS stats, advertising). It’s a shame someone else didn’t snap them up. Hopefully G will bring some stability on the plus side, there have been many feedburner wobbles – take today for instance, according to my feed stats all my email subscribers went missing yesterday (over a 1000). At least Google have a decent data center
I think google is getting too powerful that it’s really a web monopoly now. One cannot help but cringe at their level of data retention covering almost every move one makes on the net and it’s only a matter of time when all that data will end up in various government (and other) hands further making any notion of anonymity on the net no more than an illusion. Maybe we’re reaching the days of ‘minority report’ where based on what website you visited, one can predict what your next move will be. So I guess it’s the classic combo of further erosion of personal freedoms and significant decrease in crime or even potential crime. But that of course assuming this data ‘ONLY’ falls in hands of good willed government folks with aim to keep our societies safe. A major caveat…Many people at google can access this info and through them many associates, relatives, spouses, children,…And of course, these are not government folks. Or are they? Is this whole Google thing nothing but ‘Uncle Sam’ in disguise? Conspiracists…Let’s get the ball rolling
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