One more question to answer before starting the new week, this one comes from Dave Winer, one of the men who pioneered the Weblog and created the RSS format. The question is directed towards none other than Feedburner, which was recently acquired by Google.

Feedburner

Question: “Should a large company ‘control’ the blogosphere’s feeds?”

Feedburner has become increasingly ubiquitous and now has the power of Google under its belt. Dave makes the point that this gives Feedburner the ability to change whatever they want in the RSS format without anyone having any real choice in the matter. I tend to disagree, not because I don’t believe they could get away with altering RSS, only because I believe in a self-correcting blogosphere.

Should Feedburner make dramatic and unpopular changes to the RSS format, more than a few shots will ring out across the web. Feedburner might be under the protective wing of Google, but if the voices are sufficiently loud they will almost certainly have to make some kind of token gesture to appease the masses.

The very worst thing that a web company could have happen to it is to end up covering Techmeme for a few days straight. We all saw what happened when a Google blogger sided with the health care industry over Micheal Moore’s Sicko. There was a lot of sound and fury and then a retraction.

My point is that most companies listen very carefully to what the web has to say about them because at the end of the day, I can just pack up my Feedburner account and move my RSS feed elsewhere. Their product is one that relies heavily on public sentiment to drive adoption. People use Feedburner because it is good, if it suddenly does something to upset the blogging public then all bets are off.

Web 2.0 Roundup

As such, I am sure that Feedburner will tread lightly on the format. While they are making small changes to it everyday, I doubt any of these changes will be the sort of fatal backslide the Mr. Winer predicts. If they are, I am certain he will be one of the first to blow the horn of public sentiment against it.

Understanding the web is understanding a system that is under almost constant scrutiny by its users. While our attention span is notoriously short, one should never underestimate the power of a mob set into motion. If Feedburner fails to learn this lesson, then they may have trouble on their hands.

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