In just a few weeks, Google will turn Feedburner’s API off. This comes months after the feed publisher’s Twitter and blog accounts were closed, its .jp domain was lost -- and more than a year after the API was formally depreciated. Why is this happening and what can you do to avoid disruption?
Burning Down the Feeds
Despite the fact that it has been neglected by Google, Feedburner is beloved by many developers. Shutting down the API means that developers will have less flexibility when it comes to analyzing stats. And though no one can be certain that Google will shut it down altogether, many Feedburner users are concerned that it may not be the most reliable method for publishing, subscribing or monetizing one’s news feeds. As a result, many -- including yours truly -- will be looking for alternatives. Here are a few tools that we investigated.
1. FeedCat
FeedCat is a free service that supports publishing of both RSS and ATOM feeds. Through a feed button which can be placed on your website, users can keep track of unique visitors while giving readers a variety of options through which they can subscribe.
FeedCat allows users to track page views, visits and people over time -- and to see where in the world readers are coming from. Users can promote their feeds and measure audiences with FeedCat’s bookmarking, sharing and proxy services.
2. Nouri.sh Your Readers with Content
Even though RSS feeds are a great way to subscribe to blog content, the truth is that a majority of Internet users still aren’t familiar with RSS technology. With Nourish, a free newsletter service, users can offer readers a subscribe option with which they are more familiar. With Nourish, users can convert any RSS feed into an automated email newsletter to which readers can subscribe.
The free version lets you send up to 1,000 emails per month and includes customizable newsletter templates.
3. If This Then That (IFTTT)
One of my favorite tools, IFTTT is much more than a feed channel -- but if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s a pretty good resource. The Feed Channel provides Triggers and Actions for working with RSS and Atom web feeds. Additionally, you can choose from a huge number of feed recipes created by other users.
Users can point a Trigger at a specific feed URL and IFTTT fires every time a new item appears in the feed -- delivering it to a variety of outputs, including email, Twitter, Facebook, Evernote and many others.
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