Download Squad

FeedBlitz knows nobody is out there clamoring for this service. That's why in their pitch, they're trying to create a false sense of urgency. The phrase "secure your brand" comes up over and over again, and the idea is that as long as your account is in good standing (pay up, buddy), nobody else can claim the custom domain that should rightly be yours. That is, if anyone cared whatsoever about these subdomains, which they don't, and won't. And by the way, the way I see it, the best way to secure my brand is to keep people on my own damn site!

The only other value proposition I can see in FeedBlitz's pitch is that the system is fully automated, so your subdomain will be automatically populated with your content, and that you can customize the theme of the pages to some extent. Of course, if you already have a site with your content on it, why would you need this? And worse, for the process to be automated, FeedBlitz must just be mirroring the content from your site. This same thing can be done easily (and for free) using well known web standards like RSS. But most people explicitly try not to do this, because Google punishes sites who's content shows up in multiple places on the web. So we're being asked to pay for a service we don't need, which will actually hurt our search engine rankings. Brilliant!

I feel secure though, because I received an email from FeedBlitz letting me know about this new service, and telling me that they've taken the time to reserve three possible subdomains for me that I might want on their site. And as long as I pay for them by August 10th, I don't have to worry about the teeming hordes of internet bad guys out there that are looking to steal them out from under me. Uh, right.

So, do you agree, or am I totally out to lunch? Is there a valid use for this product that I'm completely missing, or is it as bad as I think? Let us know in the comments.