Update 9/10: Here’s additional commentary from the inventor of RSS, Dave Winer. Also, check out MailChimp’s comprehensive assessment of the situation, and the case for a transfer to MailChimp to mitigate the newsletter side of things. 

But what if they are shutting down Feedburner? This is something you should think about. Google people give me grief when ever I mention that it might not be the best idea for people to centralize their feeds this way. And they’re entitled to their point of view, but I’m pretty sure I’m right about this one. It wasn’t a very good idea. The fact that Google is pulling back from the service, and that is unquestionable, is evidence of that.

What can you do, and what can Google do to make a transition easier?

1. Google can use the redirection facilities built into the web to send traffic to the Feedburner version of your feed back to its original location. That way people can keep publishing their feed contents and the subscribers will continue to receive updates. It’s crucial that the connection between publishers and subscribers be preserved.

2. You can use the facility that Google provides to map a CNAME to your feed, so that if Google shuts down Feedburner, you can point that name at your main server, and your feed could continue to be accessed even if Google does not provide a redirect.

Original Post: After conducting a bit of research for a client recently, one of our team members found that Feedburner will most likely cease to operate beginning October 20, 2012. That’s a little over 10 days away!

Needless to say, we anticipate that tons of bloggers have been kept out of the loop–even we had no idea. Prolific blogger Neville Hobson noted last month that the Feedburner API page for developers makes this shut down date and intent clear:

Important: The Google Feedburner APIs have been officially deprecated as of May 26, 2011 will be shut down on October 20, 2012.

Unfortunately, Google has done absolutely nothing to actively alert digital publishers that their readers will be completely in the dark starting October 20, and that not only will the feeds themselves be unreadable, but e-mail subscriptions completely shut off and lost as well.

While there has been some doubt expressed that everything will cease to operate altogether on October 20 and that the Feedburner service may just be integrated into other Google offerings, we’d rather not take any risks due to the murky nature in which Google’s handled this situation already. Absolutely no information has been provided by Google within the timeframe of this discovery last month and the resulting speculation, all the while October 20 is quickly approaching.

Hobson further notes:

I’ve looked hard and can find no mention anywhere of this Feedburner API shut-down on any Google website other than the banner text on the website I mentioned earlier. There’s no mention of the closure at all, anywhere, in my account at Feedburner. And if I click the link on “Feedburner blog” in my account, I get the Google Adsense for Feeds blog – which itself closed down in July.

Needless to say, we consider this a very unprofessional way to shut down or phase out a service, but we’re ready to transition our clients smoothly and effectively through the following means:

1. Redirections of your old Feedburner URLs will need to be setup. Your old readers shouldn’t be bothered with the hastle in updating their feed URLs for your blog or publication. It’s crucial that you keep the connection between yourself and your subscribers intact, and a redirection will take care of that.

2. If you have any subscribers via e-mail (most Feedburner publishers do) it’s time to pick a new newsletter system. While Hobson details his transition to Feedblitz, we think there are a few better solutions, especially because Feedblitz essentially charges per e-mail subscriber.  We’ve really enjoyed working with MailChimp, but have heard great things about Wysija as well and will be providing a review on this WordPress-exclusive newsletter system soon, but not in time for this transition. As a result, we’re full confident in MailChimp’s abilities during our clients’ transitions at this time.

Note sure if you’re running Feedburner and need to switch? Are you certain that you are and need our help asap? We’re blocking out special batches of time this week and next to move clients over quickly and seamlessly. Contact us asap to make sure we can fit you in, whether you’re a past or first-time client. We’ll take care of your redirection and entire transition to a new newsletter system, including importing your previous subscribers.