Bloglines Jumps Ahead of Google

March 27, 2008 in Technology with 12 Comments

For over two weeks, the Google FeedBurner folks have been reporting new subscriber numbers for my blog. There was about a 600 subscriber drop–most of which appeared to be Google subscribers. Since they’ve failed to fix the problem or respond to my support requests, I’m doing three things:

1. Warning Google that, based on the stats (that they are reporting), it appears that they are losing Google Reader users at an alarming rate. Why are people dumping Google Reader?

2. Declaring Bloglines the new front runner in feed readers. I now have close to 900 people subscribed through Bloglines which makes them the number one choice for blog readers. I, personally, use the newer Bloglines Beta version.

3. I’m removing the chicklet that promotes the FeedBurner service until someone gets their act together.

Do you notice a sense of frustration? I hate poor customer support, and Google is demonstrating that they don’t care about the people that use their services. That’s very aggravating.

12 Responses to “Bloglines Jumps Ahead of Google”

  1. Jonathan March 27, 2008 at 10:25 am #

    Does Bloglines have the ‘NEXT’ button feature I can put in my bookmarks(Google has it!) that allows me to scroll through blogs without reading them in a blog reader inbox?

    And be careful bad-mouthing Google, they might get a pic of you walking through your living room in your undies and put it on Google Street View…

  2. Doug Cowburn March 27, 2008 at 11:20 am #

    Tony,

    I am one of those who has dropped google reader. But not for any of those reasons. Since I have installed Office 2007 the RSS engine in Outlook is the best thing I have used. It does a great job of keeping all of my blogs organized and in a place that I can actually get back to them (especially since I always have outlook open).

  3. Read Scott March 27, 2008 at 11:29 am #

    Very frustrated with Feedburner also. In fact, I wrote an article on it last week.

  4. christopher March 27, 2008 at 12:10 pm #

    Tony thanks for all the updates. With your influence you are one of the main reasons I launched the SecureGive blog. I had the chance of meeting you and your wife after your presentation on blogging at the unleash conference. I did not mention to you about how we have been able to help so many churches at that time. Anyways thanks for what you are doing, please let me know how the blog is. It is funny everytime I write I think of the many principles you mentioned at Newspring.
    Peace brother.

    Christopher
    http://securegive.blogspot.com

  5. Jeff Gibson March 27, 2008 at 4:14 pm #

    I’ve been using Bloglines for months now and will never go back.

  6. Terrace Crawford March 27, 2008 at 4:51 pm #

    I currently use Google Reader as well but I see the probs with it as compared with Bloglines, particularly the inconsistency in the number of readers.

  7. Kyle Reese March 27, 2008 at 11:07 pm #

    I have been using feedburner and I can say without question that I DO NOT like their service. Just good to know someone else agree’s.

  8. Andy Rowell March 28, 2008 at 1:44 am #

    Tony,
    To clarify,you are frustrated as a blogger with Feedburner (owned by Google) because they are not correctly recording your subscribers. Is that right?

    And then you are secondarily wondering if there is a problem with the unrelated product (but also owned by Google) Google Reader. Is that right?

    I’m just sincerely wanting to clarify since I am a TypePad blogger using Feedburner to distribute my feeds. But I haven’t really kept track of how many subscribers I have very carefully so I don’t know if they are miscounting them.

    As a blog reader, I love Google Reader. I have it on my iGoogle homepage. Google Readers works flawlessly for me.

    By the way, for anyone interested, I have newly updated my 80 Best Blogs to Read for Church Leaders http://www.andyrowell.net/andy_rowell/2008/03/church-leadersh.html

    If you like Tony Morgan and are beginning to subscribe to blogs, you will want to scan through my list (most are well-known pastors and authors) and see if any look interesting.

    Grace and peace,

    andy

    Andy Rowell
    Doctor of Theology Student
    Duke Divinity School
    Blog: http://www.andyrowell.net/

  9. tony morgan March 28, 2008 at 9:43 am #

    Andy, you described the situation accurately. Now, for the more important question, do you access to Duke basketball tickets?

    Tony

  10. Andy Rowell March 28, 2008 at 9:19 pm #

    Ha. Yes, if I camp out one night in September.
    all the best,
    andy

  11. anne jackson March 29, 2008 at 9:50 pm #

    shawn posted about this today too…i have had no problems with feedburner…once i had a huge jump and the next day a large drop but everything else has been consistent!

  12. anne jackson March 31, 2008 at 5:14 pm #

    so, i wrote that comment last night and what happens? 600 subscriber drop this morning!!!!!! blast. i think you secretly have connections…