Google Reader now reports feed subscriber numbers, offers Publisher Tips page

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, Social Software

Google Reader now reports feed subscriber numbers, offers Publisher Tips page

by David Chartier Feb 16th 2007

For a long time now, Google Reader has sat in the camp with other online RSS clients who unfortunately don't (or more correctly: couldn't) report the number of readers subscribed to a feed. This of course can frustrate publishers, as they only see one collective hit from Google Reader instead of an actual number of their readers using that client.

As of this morning, however, the Official Google Reader Blog has changed all of that. In fact, the gReader team has not only enabled their crawler to report an actual number of feed subscribers, that number also includes users who are simply subscribed to a feed via Google Homepage.

Not content to stop at mere numbers, the Google Reader team have also created a Tips for Publishers page that offers ideas for best practices, feed implementation, feed "auto-discovery" and even a few catches to look out for.

It might not have been the much-requested search update that gReader users are salivating for, but these new features should certainly put a smile on most publishers' faces.

Tags: feeds, google reader, GoogleReader, greader, publisher, publishers, reader, subscribers, tips

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Marc said 7:02PM on 2-16-2007

I think that's a bit disingenuous of Google to suggest that the number of subscribers appeals only to publishers, not to readers. I use the number of subscribers as a means to gauge a feed's popularity relative to similar sites.

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