Republic of Angola (Xyami): Burning Questions!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Burning Questions!

Additions and Attractions for Our Feeds-by-Email Service

Posted: 06 Jan 2009 08:38 PM PST

FeedBurner's email service began delivering updates in April, 2006. The launch was just weeks after scientists determined email and feeds could be safely combined in a laboratory setting. Our public service has since delivered millions of messages on behalf of thousands of publishers, making sure that publishers who want to get the word out can reach the broadest audience possible — including many site visitors who don't already embrace feeds (or feed readers, like Google Reader), but who trust their email inboxes to be the best way to have content that matters most delivered to them.

As part of our move to Google infrastructure, FeedBurner has added some new features for email publishers. Most of these are of the under-the-hood variety, but a new set of subscriber list management features will be especially beneficial for publishers with dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of existing email subscribers. Here are features live today for all feeds managed through a Google account:

Added reliability and delivery scale, thanks to Google infrastructure. The same systems that handle Gmail and other, large-scale public email communications traffic now deliver FeedBurner email subscriptions, too.

Robust subscriber list search and pagination. Instead of loading your entire subscriber list, which is too much for some browsers to handle if that list is really big, the new service displays just the 150 most recent subscribers. You can search for specific addresses or general domains (e.g., "hotmail.com" will return a list and total count of your subscribers with "hotmail.com" in their addresses.) This list is now paginated to allow you to scroll through its contents easily.

Complete subscriber list export. Want to view the whole shebang offline? Download a CSV-formatted text file of your entire subscriber list.

These new features are in addition to FeedBurner's classic email capabilities. As always, you may:

Customize delivery time frame and time zone
Write your own welcome/activation email text
Choose from multiple custom font, size, and color combinations
Incorporate a custom graphic logo in your HTML message header

Also, new subscribers are still required to confirm their requests (to minimize potential abuse).

Want to use the free email delivery service with your feed? Using the latest improvements to email requires moving your existing feedburner.com account to Google (if you haven't done so already). If you use AdSense, any feeds you set up to use AdSense for feeds will also include ads in emails delivered with this service. Sign in to your AdSense account, click AdSense Setup, then Manage Ads, and then locate an AdSense for feeds unit you have created. Click the "View Feed Stats" link next to this unit to reach your feed's Analyze page. Click the Publicize tab, then Email Subscriptions to view and set up service options. Email subscriptions will be delivered, using your settings, starting with your feed's next update. (If your Google account is already set up to use FeedBurner, you can also get to the "Email Subscriptions" service setup area by signing directly in to feedburner.google.com, clicking your feed's title on My Feeds, and then visiting Publicize > Email Subscriptions.)

Posted by Matt Shobe, User Experience Designer, AdSense for Feeds

Using the Competitive Ad Filter with AdSense for feeds

Posted: 31 Dec 2008 10:32 AM PST

First, Happy New Year to everyone from AdSense for feeds and FeedBurner teams here at Google.

Second, this is a quick one - but we get asked this a lot, so we thought we'd cover it.

If you currently use the Competitive Ad Filter with AdSense for content, you may also wish to use it with AdSense for feeds. In order to provide publishers with ultimate control, the filter for AdSense for feeds is separate from that of AdSense for content, but operates in the exact same manner.

To block competitors ads from showing in AdSense for feeds, login to your AdSense account, go to the AdSense setup tab, and select Competitive Ad Filter. Then make sure you have selected the tab marked "AdSense for Feeds" and enter the domains or partial domains into the text box.

For further information on this please read this help center topic .

Posted by Steve Olechowski - Product Manager, AdSense for feeds

Now Available: Moving your FeedBurner account to Google using AdSense

Posted: 23 Dec 2008 08:19 AM PST

If you've been following some recent posts at the venerable Burning Questions, you'll be happy to know that we are now starting the next phase of FeedBurner integration into Google, right here in our swanky new digs on the Adsense for feeds blog. AdSense for feeds isn't just about earning revenue for your feeds; it's also the starting point for managing syndication and tracking feed analytics. We hope to give you some tips to how to earn the most revenue from your syndicated content, but we'll also be offering tips to help ensure your feeds remain in tip-top shape.

A few months ago, we announced that we would be moving all FeedBurner accounts to Google accounts and we have been steadily doing just that ever since. However, as many of you know, this has been a manual process and has taken some time to smooth out.

Now, we're happy to announce that if you have a valid AdSense account and a FeedBurner account, you should now be able to initiate this account move directly from within your AdSense account. (Moving accounts starting from within FeedBurner.com and FeedBurner.jp to Google will be available soon. We're grinding away on this feature right now.)

Why move? That's the easy part. Moving to a Google account means:

* We can tie your FeedBurner feeds to other Google products and services easily as you see fit
* You can participate in AdSense for feeds
* You will get access to all the new services and publisher tools for syndication we are developing in the future

We will still be contacting FeedBurner publishers by email, based on previous account information you provided that matches information in Google accounts. But if we are not getting to you fast enough, please use the self-serve form to initiate your account move, even if you requested a move at a prior time. This helps us reach as many of you as possible, as there may have been a typo in your request that prevented us from successfully moving your account previously.

We know there are a lot of questions around this process, so we have created a FeedBurner to Google Account Transfer FAQ. We look forward to helping you earn more money from your syndicated content and streamlining your feeds in the New Year!

Posted by Steve Olechowski - Product Manager, AdSense for feeds