Did Google Kill Feedburner? commentary

Ever since Google acquired Feedburner, it’s seemed that the popular feed managing service has slowly been declining. One would have expected with a Google takeover that there would be numerous improvements with the service, but it has truly been the other way around. Aside from the availability of all pro features for free, not much has changed with the service that was once a big help.

Did Google Kill It?

I have used Feedburner for a long time - since early 2006. Back then Feedburner was it’s own project, which means in order for it to be successful they had to look into problems and constantly make improvements. The service improved and more and more features were introduced. Any time there was a problem with the Feedburner servers and subscriber counts were screwed up, the problem was fixed very quickly, and you could get on with your life.

Then Google came about.

Jump to today, and Feedburner is not the same. For about a week and a half, tons of users have been getting 0 subscriber counts. Only for a few hours a day will the subscriber count be up to date. Even when it is up to date, it’s not very accurate. From my own stats scripts, I can see I have way more subscribers than Feedburner reports when it actual does report. The Feedburner staff uses Google Groups to provide support updates, as the support forum was also discontinued. The last update on the zero subscriber issue was July 31st, and there’s been no news since. Nearly a week has gone back, the issue remains. This is Google we’re talking about right? Can’t we get some tech support? The Feedburner Ad Network (”FAN”) was also recently closed, but you would only know that if you checked the support group.

Is it just me or did Google kill Feedburner?