The Google/FeedBurner Rumor Mill
by
on July 23, 2007,
Everyone's been abuzz about Dave Winer and his take on Google and Feedburner. According to Winer, this may CRIPPLE blogging, people! Google may tie Feedburner to Google Reader and if you don't use Feedburner, your blog may end up NOT WORKING in Google Reader.
There are days I wish I had the power Dave Winer does when it comes to reaction to something I write. Of course, I'd use my powers for good, not evil. In his "update" on the brouhaha he set off, he cites Google's purchase of Blogger as evidence.
Last time I checked, WordPress was running the show when it came to blogs. Who's behind them? My guess is the SixApart umbrella, but I'm not entirely motivated to find hard numbers. I started out as a Blogger user. I even paid for Blogger Pro so I could have all the extra features, and then I discovered Movable Type (back when it was free) and had already moved on by the time Google bought them out. I got a free hoodie for my subscription buy-out (which is WAY cool, and I still wear constantly, BTW) and never looked back.
Sure, Blogger is tied to the Google Toolbar. They own it. And I image Feedburner might tie into Google Reader as well. Again, they own it. But while I do believe Google is trying to worm its way into every conceivable corner of your life, they haven't always overtaken everything. They don't own the iPhone (yet). The top blogging platform is still an open, free format. And not everyone out there bothers with Google Reader. I tried it, found it lacking, and moved on to a handy little app called endo. At the moment, it's only for Mac OS X, but they are living proof that great readers exist. Readers that are even better than Google Reader (for instance, endo tells me EXACTLY how many articles I have unread, unlike Google Reader's 100+ notations).
We can complain about Google taking over the world. We can write articles until our fingers are numb. Or we can seek out the best of breed and assemble our own Web toolbox for living in this Internet-centric world. Sure, some of it is Google. But not all of it. There's always something new out there; RSS readers are being built into many 2.0 apps. Why are they being ignored to obsess about one reader?
