Comments on: Dear Google: Please Take Feedburner to the Next Level

By: Ed Hardy bags

Ed Hardy bags — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:19:46 +0000

You echoed my thoughts!

By: malber

malber — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:37:19 +0000

Thanks for posting this!

the generic subject line – and the absence of the Author Name have been big areas of frustration for there email subscription service.

Not displaying the author adds a bunch of confusion for the email subcribers to a multi-author blog

By: Rosalind Gardner

Rosalind Gardner — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:36:48 +0000

Hey Darren,

Frustrating yes… that’s why I’m glad that most of my subscribers are with Aweber which allows me to customize the subject line as I see fit… either a generic ‘latest posts’ or with the specific title of the blog post.

Just wish I knew why the Feedburner stats went really wonky all of a sudden yesterday.. from 39K readers to a measly 1K. Ugh.

Cheers,
Ros

By: Beth Whitman

Beth Whitman — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:47:47 +0000

I change my email/subject title for every new post. If I’m traveling and have several posts timestamped, I simply create a generic subject but otherwise I use the blog title for every alert.

By: Phil Hollows

Phil Hollows — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:22:38 +0000

@Traffghetti – You’re right, which is why FeedBlitz lets you specify how subject lines should be built from your feed when there’s a single post in the email and when there are multiple posts. We also have email blasts, separate from your blog-based mailings, and manual article selection if you prefer to work that way instead.

Phil

By: Traffghetti

Traffghetti — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:26:55 +0000

Darren, the thing, the subject line can’t have just one article because it’s possible to have posted many in the same day.

By: Johann

Johann — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:02:29 +0000

I agree, hopefully Google fixes this issue promptly.

By: Paul Derham

Paul Derham — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:44:37 +0000

I agree. These comments are becoming an informal petition. Perhaps do another post, and use your affiliates too, and a facebook group, and include a poll so it’s easier to add your name to the list of bloggers who are fed up with feedburner’s bugs. Let’s get a few more thousand people agreeing. It’s very un-google like to use a platform that’s so unreliable, and it drives people to Feedblitz and similar paid services which are currently far superior.

By: Agent 001

Agent 001 — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:23:13 +0000

I also wants those features to be added soon. I hope they will add those features soon.

I subscribe to my own RSS as well and when it is delivered to me, I do not like to see the same Subject line. My subscribers are unsubscribing. May be this is the reason.

I also wanted the update frequency feature for long time. As FeedBurner didn’t had the feature, I had to decrease my blog posting frequency and bugging subscribers every day results in losing them.

Darren Thanks. Did you contact FeedBurner through email? If you did is there anyway we can support you officially.

By: Celes | CelestineChua.com

Celes | CelestineChua.com — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:39:36 +0000

Word, Darren! I’ve been wondering why Google can’t implement a function where the email titles are the post titles. It really isn’t helpful to have all the email subscription titles the same all the time.

By: Stuart Liedtke

Stuart Liedtke — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:08:37 +0000

I disagree and agree with the comment above from JohnONolan. For problogger you are on the money. His article does make a valid point however for the millions of others. I don’t purport that Google spend a billion on it to bring it up the richness everyone would like and not see any revenue out of it.

Great article.

By: David Stillwagon

David Stillwagon — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:40:21 +0000

I think that would be a great help!

By: bariles

bariles — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:53:23 +0000

You literally verbalized the thoughts out of my brains! I hope Google takes these valid suggestions into consideration and immmediately put them to work.

Now all we have to do is wait.

Thanks for this. If put into fruition, my small group of subscribers (350++) would definitely be pleased.

By: العاب

العاب — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:30:49 +0000

I really see the reason for this complaint . The shot you’ve taken looks offpuuting! i certainly do not want to see my inbox crammed that way.

By: JohnONolan

JohnONolan — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:55:30 +0000

Darren,

While I agree with your points, and the feature requests which you made.. you have to remember that this is a free service. Completely fee. Google don’t owe anyone any development of any kind.

Frankly if I were in your position running a blog/business of the size and scale that you do – I would LONG ago have transitioned my feeds to my own dedicated server and had all the functionality custom built to suit my requirements (as Smashing Magazine have already done). You can’t run a big business on free software and expect it to meet all your requirements.

By: Timothy Carter

Timothy Carter — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:14:41 +0000

Darren, man I’m real curious to see how long it will be before Google DOES take some steps to improve it based on this post! :)

I’m right there with you on all points for Feedburner’s improvement!

By: tashfeen

tashfeen — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:52:37 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. Feedburner’s email subscription service needs to improve! I wish Google had some competition in this field to remain motivated in evolving their hefty acquisitions *after* the deal is sealed. Oh well, fingers crossed…

By: Melanie B

Melanie B — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:30:25 +0000

Thank you Darren!

Google, please innovate – I like you, I use you, I don’t want to lose you.

By: Glenn A

Glenn A — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:50:27 +0000

Of course you can go into Feedburner and change the Email Branding each time you post something. That is a pain and the real downside is when you forget and something goes out with the wrong subject. I do like one thing about that — the subject line and headline do not repeat each other, so I can use a more flashy subject line and a more accurate headline.

I would like to see a simple way to insert ads for the email product only, instead of having that linked to the posted version, which doesn’t work for me anyway.

Soon all things will be Google and when we cross them our web lives will be ruined.

By: Phil Hollows

Phil Hollows — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:13:27 +0000

@Kapil – embedded video players won’t show up in email thanks to virus writers. Most email clients treat active content – applets, script, activex – as potentially hostile and won’t run them. Solution is to embed a static image / and / or a link to the online version “if you can’t see this in your reader …” etc.

@Neil Matthews – FeedBlitz has autoresponders too.
@Alanna Kellogg, @Michael Hyatt: Thanks :-)
@Kristin @Judo Sohn Try us…

If anyone wants to chat privately follow me @phollows on Twitter

Phil