FeedSnap: The FeedBurner Replacement

FeedSnap logo Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’ve certainly seen all the hullaballoo that took place when Google shut down Google Reader for good. Aside from being a damn good RSS web-based reader, it was very importantly, so popular that and backed by a company so huge that it basically killed off all its competitors without even trying. If you care about your blog, you’re probably looking for a FeedBurner replacement or a FeedBurner alternative just about now.

People have been panicking about the so-called “death of RSS” ever since. RSS has a special place in our hearts, we think the idea behind a simple, standardized, freely-accessible stream of updates for just any website is a confluence of awesomeness that only comes around once in a blue moon. In other words: if RSS dies today, it’s not because something equally awesome has replaced it. Anyone equating RSS with Twitter streams (where stuff is virtually designed to be lost in the madness) and Facebook “feeds” (accessible only to friends, at the mercy of Facebook Inc) has no clue what they are talking about.

The writing has been on the wall for months, and pretty much everyone has come to suspect the next shoe will soon drop and Google will kill FeedBurner (the equivalent of Google Reader for website publishers) in the next round of “spring cleaning.” Google purchased Chicago-based startup (yay Windy City!) FeedBurner from its founders back in 2007, and ever since has been disabling and dismembering it, one feature at a time. Today, FeedBurner is only a sorry reminder of it once was.

To that end, we are happy to introduce today FeedSnap.

Continue reading

Congratulations, FeedBurner!

We’ve been with FeedBurner for a while now, quite a bit before FeedBurner became all the rage that it is now (and most rightly so); so this is about as “up close and personal” as it gets for us… We’ve been there with FeedBurner as one of the first FeedBurner Ad Network members right when that program started, and have been simply thrilled with just about everything FeedBurner has put on the table since.

Last week the rumors started that Google was interested in a FeedBurner takeover, and today they’ve been confirmed. So a big round of applause for FeedBurner and their 100MM USD deal, they most certainly deserve it!

Continue reading

WordPress 2.0.7 Fixes the FeedBurner Bug

For the first (and hopefully last) time ever, we’re glad to hear that WordPress has a major security vulnerability. Why? As a result of a security vulnerability that affects WordPress 2.0.6 and below on certain server configurations, the WordPress Developers Team has released a new version of WordPress that incorporates both a security patch for the detailed vulnerability, and a fix for the FeedBurner Bug that we reported for 2.0.6. You can download WordPress 2.0.7 or see the list of affected/changed files here on the WP Development Blog.

Originally, the WordPress team had refused to patch the WordPress 2.0.6 FeedBurner Bug on the premise that it was too soon to release another version of WordPress for a “minor” bug – which we disagreed with. However, you can now download WordPress 2.0.7 and hopefully this time there aren’t any surprise bugs that need immediate patching. We highly recommend everyone goes and downloads WordPress 2.0.7 immediately in order to avoid anyone compromising their blog/site via the security hole in WordPress 2.0.6.

Correction: WordPress is released and maintained independant from Automattic

WordPress 2.0.6 and FeedBurner Disconnects

This article provides a workaroud for WordPress 2.0.6 and chronic FeedBurner disconnects. It’s essential that you upgrade to WordPress 2.0.6 immediately in order to prevent your blog from being taken over by hackers! Upgrade, then follow these instructions to get it to play nicely with FeedBurner afterwards.

The Problem

After upgrading to WordPress 2.0.6 or WordPress 2.1 Beta, your FeedBurner feed will, at times, give you an “invalid xml” error, and “FeedMedic” will show you something like this:

Your server disconnected us before sending the full source feed content. If your blogging platform is TextPattern, this is a known bug, and a fix can be found here: http://forum.textpattern.com/viewtopic.php?id=11247

Continue reading

Totally Redone Feed System

If you ever wondered why our feed subscribers count was low despite our rankings and other indexes, don’t worry about it anymore. We’ve completely rewritten the “feed maker” for NeoSmart Technologies, and it’s solved a great number of chronic problems that had our loyal subscribers less-than-happy.

Continue reading