Google Bought Feedburner!?!

[Patrician]

I can't believe Google never stops. They are truly the internet version of Microsoft and seek to take over the entire world.

I have found they have so many applications not many ever heard of - it is quite interesting.

I am still waiting for Google Breakfast Cereal.

I already can see the ads.

Tony the Tiger Baby (of Frosted Flakes Fame) - Baby Nerd style with horn rim glasses, pocket protector and diapers.

He goes "Goo-Goo" "Goo-Goo" "Goo-Google". Then he installs all kinds of tracking junk and adware on your PC when you are not looking.

When he is really a raging brat he will sandbox you and tell you he doesn't like your content or affiliate programs.

[houdy]

If you use FeedBurner on your WordPress blog should move your feed over to the new Google site. More here: Move Your FeedBurner Account To Google

[jinmin]

That's great news for user...all service under one roof !
I believed all Feedburner users has been notified as when they log in to their feedburner account, there will be a message notify them to move their feed over to Google.

[zhuuraan]

I've never used feedburner, so I wouldn't know the difference. Still google owns so many things, as does eBay. Man just imagine if those two giants merged? Blogger, Adsense, Analytics, PayPal, Skype, eBay, and who knows what else all under one company! Man I'd run out of breath if I tried to name them all!

[Jeff Casmer]

Hi,

Maybe Google will get involved in the pizza delivery business next...

I will take a large pepperoni

Take care
Jeff Casmer

[cncbuss]

The reason given for this acquisition is that Google believes feed-based content and advertising is a developing space where they can add value for users, advertisers and publishers. FeedBurner's technology will only help to better serve advertisers and publishers who rely on feed based content for exposure.

Hey why not? More solutions under one roof.

CBuss

[Patrician]

With all due respect, you are missing the point. Just like with Microsoft, Office Depot, WalMart and all the monolith monopolies - They put all the little guys out of business.

For your information Google hates affiliate programs. They already pick and choose who can use Adsense, and if your content 'has value' - like who died and made them king? They already totally control who gets traffic.

So we are at their mercy and if they don't like something you have done it's irrelevant to them if you fail in your business because you have a stray hair - and I am not talking about black-hat - just some minor things can get you sandboxed for a long time.

This is very unhealthy for FREE ENTERPRISE. Competition is a good thing that keeps everybody adding value. When there is no competition, there is no motivation to keep on top.

Hold the cheese...

[Patrician]

Originally Posted by jinmin

That's great news for user...all service under one roof !
I believed all Feedburner users has been notified as when they log in to their feedburner account, there will be a message notify them to move their feed over to Google.

Sorry - I have 3 feeds and didn't receive a notice of the change at all - I don't know how long this has been in effect and I would never have known had I not gone to Feedburner to add a 4th feed.

[jinmin]

Originally Posted by Patrician

Sorry - I have 3 feeds and didn't receive a notice of the change at all - I don't know how long this has been in effect and I would never have known had I not gone to Feedburner to add a 4th feed.

Hmm....That's weird. I saw the message when I logged in to my Feedburner account last 2 days ago.

[Kooza]

I believe Google obtained FeedBurner almost 2 years ago, it is only until just recently that they have linked it with your Google account. You had to pay for the advanced features of FeedBurner prior to then.

For your information Google hates affiliate programs. They already pick and choose who can use Adsense, and if your content 'has value' - like who died and made them king? They already totally control who gets traffic.

I have never heard of anyone being turned down providing they have unique content on their site? It is in Google's best interest to have as many sites running Adsense as possible. In order to encourage people to bid on the content network they need to ensure the traffic is worth bidding on, traditionally the content network hasn't converted very well.

Any service which has a lot of traffic and advertising opportunity is going to be in Google's sites. Perhaps more the former than the latter as Google are still yet to find a way to monetize YouTube. It will be interesting to see what tracking features Google integrate into FeedBurner.

Google are not a monopoly and it is only natural that they try and grab as much market share as possible. We choose to use Google because they provide quality tools however there is still competition and opportunity for other companies to take back some of that market share. Even though Google have expanded vertically their business model is still totally reliant on search in order to provide these tools for free. This means Google must continue to provide "the best user experience" as Google often put it to sustain their business.

I believe web 2.0 sites are Google's biggest threat. Twitter and Facebook will definitely have their sites firmly set on growing their search functionality.

One thing is for sure Microsoft must be extremely concerned as Gmail and Google Docs are moving into Microsoft's territory and threatening Microsoft's own monopoly. I wonder how long it will be until Google release their own free operating system!

Mike.

[houdy]

FeedBurner didn't notify anyone with an account (as far as I know). Unless you find out from another online source, the only way to know of the change is if you login to your FB account. Since it's more of a "set it and forget it" thing how often does one do that?

[tplahav]

Shhh guys,
Google is listening.

Tanny

[Trent Brownrigg]

Last time I logged in to feedburner they told me to move them. It was very easy.

[Patrician]

Originally Posted by Kooza

One thing is for sure Microsoft must be extremely concerned as Gmail and Google Docs are moving into Microsoft's territory and threatening Microsoft's own monopoly. I wonder how long it will be until Google release their own free operating system! Mike.

Let's hope if they do it is better than their browser, 'Chrome' - I am one of the few who use it and it is a real pain - it doesn't do so many things and gives errors and security blocks that even FireFox doesn't have. It doesn't even have settings that the user can change. Oddly it uses the Internet Explorer settings when it is installed - but then if you change IE settings, it doesn't pick them up after the install.

In order not to use IE I have to use a combination of FireFox and Chrome to get everything done on all the different databases.

Chrome works pretty well the best for Host4Profit but would not do a thing on HostGator - would not save edits or upload anything.

Just now it told me a page is not available/link is broken, and 2 seconds later I pasted the same URL in FF and it was fine.

Originally Posted by Kooza

I have never heard of anyone being turned down providing they have unique content on their site? It is in Google's best interest to have as many sites running Adsense as possible. In order to encourage people to bid on the content network they need to ensure the traffic is worth bidding on, traditionally the content network hasn't converted very well. Mike.

Well you don't work on our helpdesk and see all the people that are turned down. Yes this is an affiliate program and the content is not unique - unlike most affiliaite programs, however, people can add unique content to the affiliate site - and technically since they have unique domain names and header information they are not exact duplicates of each other.

...and by the way I am talking even blogs that have unique articles - they have been turned down as 'no value'... (not sure what the articles were - but this is what I mean about too much power).

Anyway don't construe that I have a vendetta against Google - I think they are a great company in many ways and I like most of their services. It is just I don't want to see them get too big for their britches.

As far as the monopoly theory apparently there are several people who agree with me judging from the number of class action lawsuits that have been brought against Microsoft for these issues...

[Kooza]

Originally Posted by Patrician

Let's hope if they do it is better than their browser, 'Chrome' - I am one of the few who use it and it is a real pain - it doesn't do so many things and gives errors and security blocks that even FireFox doesn't have. It doesn't even have settings that the user can change. Oddly it uses the Internet Explorer settings when it is installed - but then if you change IE settings, it doesn't pick them up after the install.

I think more people use Chrome than you think and most are pretty impressed with it's speed. It's still in beta remember so there are going to be bugs.

In order not to use IE I have to use a combination of FireFox and Chrome to get everything done on all the different databases.

Chrome works pretty well the best for Host4Profit but would not do a thing on HostGator - would not save edits or upload anything.

Just now it told me a page is not available/link is broken, and 2 seconds later I pasted the same URL in FF and it was fine.

I spend probably 12+ hours a day using Firefox and am yet to have any problems, at least nothing major which would require using a different browser. So I would have to question the processes you are using which requires having to use both Chrome and Firefox. The only exception are outdated tools which were built prior to Firefox for a poorly coded IE which has caused web developers many a headache ever since.

It's no longer an issue now but there is a programme called Domain Dashboard which allows you to manage multiple sites through cpanel and has mass ftp, would have been useful for HostGator.

Well you don't work on our helpdesk and see all the people that are turned down. Yes this is an affiliate program and the content is not unique - unlike most affiliaite programs, however, people can add unique content to the affiliate site - and technically since they have unique domain names and header information they are not exact duplicates of each other.

I know a lot of people get turned down through PIPS, there is constant talk of people getting turned down in this forum, however all you need to do is get a blogger blog, blog about virtually anything, probably one post and you will get approved. Basically anyone can get an Adsense account.

...and by the way I am talking even blogs that have unique articles - they have been turned down as 'no value'... (not sure what the articles were - but this is what I mean about too much power).

The home page will still be the same PIPS site promoting the same offers, Google do not want multiple sites basically providing the same message filling up it's search results. If you put yourself in Google's shoes I personally don't think it is all that surprising that they turn down PIPS sites but as it so easy to get an account via Blogger I don't really see it being that big of a deal. Although I feel for you Pat having to constantly deal with PIPS members asking why their application was turned down.

Anyway don't construe that I have a vendetta against Google - I think they are a great company in many ways and I like most of their services. It is just I don't want to see them get too big for their britches.

Adsense isn't really a big earner anymore, it's only really worthwhile for the large sites, affiliate programmes and especially pay per lead offers are a better alternative for PIPS sites in my opinion, in fact it'd probably be beneficial for everyone if it was just removed from the 30 days to success guide (I am assuming it is in there somewhere).

As far as the monopoly theory apparently there are several people who agree with me judging from the number of class action lawsuits that have been brought against Microsoft for these issues...

I think the difference is that like I said in my previous post is that we choose to use Google's services whereas we are forced to use Microsoft's. I think the only real viable law suit against Google is something to do with building their search into Chrome, meaning you are forced to use it. Also Google's tools are free so I am sure that would factor into it. When there are no alternatives then you have a monopoly and there are alternatives for all of Google's services it's just that Google are doing a better job at the moment than anyone else. That's my understanding anyway.

Anyway it's definitely an interesting topic for discussion, I know there are a lot of people who question the way Google have gone about obtaining their large dominance and how they are going about trying to secure it while trying to maintain a positive image in the eyes of the general public.

Mike.

[Kooza]

Originally Posted by houdy

FeedBurner didn't notify anyone with an account (as far as I know). Unless you find out from another online source, the only way to know of the change is if you login to your FB account. Since it's more of a "set it and forget it" thing how often does one do that?

I received an email about it

Hi,

We're contacting you to let you know about an important change to your FeedBurner account. As you may be aware, we've spent the last year running FeedBurner on the Google platform with AdSense in order to offer publishers an effective way to manage and monetize their feeds.

We are currently planning to have all accounts moved by February 28, 2009. Because you are currently using MyBrand on Feedburner.com, you'll need to migrate your account and complete a DNS CNAME change before this date. All MyBrand feeds that have not transferred to the Google platform will stop working after this date.

If you'd like to continue to use our services, please begin the process of moving your feeds soon. You can initiate this transfer from with your AdSense account or your FeedBurner account.
In addition, if you do not have AdSense account, and would like to start monetizing your feeds after the transfer, we would encourage you to apply here: https://www.google.com/adsense/g-app-single-1 .

Once you’ve moved your feeds to Google, you can find detailed instructions for changing your CNAME in order to continue using the MyBrand service here: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mybrand .

If you have questions about this transfer, please refer to the following Help Center entry for further details: Transferring FeedBurner Accounts to Google Accounts FAQ - FeedBurner Help .

Sincerely,

The Google Feedburner Team

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

They must have only sent it to people who use MyBrand as that is all that has been effected by the change.

Mike.

[Patrician]

The issue with FireFox is it does not handle XML like it should. Therefore when I copy the source code from the PIPS server to the new site (and this is either Host4Profit or HostGator) - it splays the code (I think splay is a word).

In other words instead of nice blocks of code it is one big long mess - Darrin and Suzanne both have a problem with working in a bowl of spaghetti when they do services for people, and I don't blame them.

So, I have to view the source and copy it from there (where I can see the XML tag) and not include it.

I don't have that problem with Chrome so one point for Chrome - It is not a huge problem but when you do it several times every night it just adds another step - so I would rather just use Chrome and not have to view source.

I have managed to get Firefox to stop the nag on scripts by disabling that add-on 'No Script'. I hate disabling it because I would like the extra security - but I cannot stand being nagged every time I try to do something.

With new orders I have to test all the links to see if they are hosted, registered, etc. from Gmail. I still need to 'allow the redirect' - that's ok, I am not taking that off - but it calls everything I do to rename a file or edit a file something that I need to ok when I have 'No Script' enabled in Host4Profit.

Again, you may not consider this tedious but I do - maybe I have a short circuit in my head but doing something repeatedly every day and having to add steps just isn't fun for me so I am living dangerously but I have peace. LOL.

When all is said and done anything is better than using Explorer which is like 1/2 as fast as either FF or Chrome. I have serious issues with it freezing up and crashing all windows - even have reinstalled it and it is still doing that - sometimes it won't even boot.

Anyway - it's all good.

[Patrician]

Although I don't use MyBrand and didn't receive an email, when I logged in to Feedburner all I had to do was press one button and it moved all 3 existing feeds to Google. My issue is like Houdy said - it is set and forget and I just wonder if or how long my feeds were not working and nobody told me.

Originally Posted by Kooza

I received an email about it

They must have only sent it to people who use MyBrand as that is all that has been effected by the change.

Mike.

[Patrician]

Here is a link to one of many lawsuits against Adsense

Aaron Greenspan: Why I Sued Google (and Won)

[Kooza]

Originally Posted by Patrician

The issue with FireFox is it does not handle XML like it should. Therefore when I copy the source code from the PIPS server to the new site (and this is either Host4Profit or HostGator) - it splays the code (I think splay is a word).

In other words instead of nice blocks of code it is one big long mess - Darrin and Suzanne both have a problem with working in a bowl of spaghetti when they do services for people, and I don't blame them.

So, I have to view the source and copy it from there (where I can see the XML tag) and not include it.

I don't have that problem with Chrome so one point for Chrome - It is not a huge problem but when you do it several times every night it just adds another step - so I would rather just use Chrome and not have to view source.

I have managed to get Firefox to stop the nag on scripts by disabling that add-on 'No Script'. I hate disabling it because I would like the extra security - but I cannot stand being nagged every time I try to do something.

With new orders I have to test all the links to see if they are hosted, registered, etc. from Gmail. I still need to 'allow the redirect' - that's ok, I am not taking that off - but it calls everything I do to rename a file or edit a file something that I need to ok when I have 'No Script' enabled in Host4Profit.

Again, you may not consider this tedious but I do - maybe I have a short circuit in my head but doing something repeatedly every day and having to add steps just isn't fun for me so I am living dangerously but I have peace. LOL.

When all is said and done anything is better than using Explorer which is like 1/2 as fast as either FF or Chrome. I have serious issues with it freezing up and crashing all windows - even have reinstalled it and it is still doing that - sometimes it won't even boot.

Anyway - it's all good.

Feel free to send me a link so that I can see the problem and I will see if I can help.

Mike.

[Kooza]

Originally Posted by Patrician

Although I don't use MyBrand and didn't receive an email, when I logged in to Feedburner all I had to do was press one button and it moved all 3 existing feeds to Google. My issue is like Houdy said - it is set and forget and I just wonder if or how long my feeds were not working and nobody told me.

Yes your feeds were working the whole time which is why they didn't send you an email, it was only people who had MyBrand configured that would have experienced down time, that's what I was trying to say in my previous post.

Mike.

[Patrician]

Oh! I got it now!?! That's good news. Thanks Mike.

...and thanks for your offer - I realized that was what I was 'fishing' for was one of your bright ideas - but I think you are probably right - it is some old technology and not something that can be fixed by a browser setting (which is what I was thinking)...

I will just live with it.

BTW for the first time tonight, as if Google really is listening like Tanny said above, Chrome worked on HostGator. (I am still cleaning up people who had pending orders/incorrect information from before the last change). I forgot to switch browsers and suddenly realized it was working!

BTW#2 if you haven't upgraded Skype lately you are in for a pleasant surprise - they have made a major jump - the interface is fantastic now. I clicked help and check for updates - and there was one waiting. Glad I went there...

Well good to talk to you.
Take care.