Feedburner Networks
08.06.06 - 10:19am
I love organization. When looking at the internet as a whole I see a very cluttered mob of websites with various clusters that have naturally formed. These clusters include 9rules, b5media, and Random Shapes. just to name a few. Feedburner, the wildly popular RSS aggregator has started a venture into this world of networking with its Feedburner Networks. These networks operate in a similar fashion to the networks I mentioned above however they are all clustered underneath Feedburner to provide a mega-portal to specific content.
9rules has been very successful as a network due to the content and organization. Networks are simply collections of blogs and if the blogs are boring, the network will flop. Feedburner Networks hopes to keep all the networks from flopping by having each network under the control of a coordinator. These coordinators will essentially be the bouncers to these exclusive clubs, err networks. If they feel your content doesn’t cut it, they can say no or kick you out if you are already in. One network that I found via a related article was the Venture Capital Network. Under the control of Brad Feld, this network features 13 other Venture Capital blogs with a combined readership of 46,000 readers. These blogs are successful due to their niche focus and their quality blogging and by combining these blogs together they have created a one-stop shop for all things Venture Capital. This is where these Networks will succeed, by combining specific blogs that all focus on small niches so that readers of this niche will no longer have to haunt the internet in search of content.
While Feedburner Networks will directly compete with dedicated networks like 9rules, I am pretty certain that the camaraderie that is present within 9rules won’t be exist within this decentralized super network. I love 9rules for all the fringe benefits like the forums, IRC chatroom, and friendships that have formed through association with 9rules and this is possible due to the relatively small numbers of users. Feedburner networks will no doubt be popular as anyone will be able to form a network but it will be to easy for networks to get lost in the millions of feeds that travel through Feedburner. Perhaps this will be a good birthing ground for networks but I am sure dedicated networks will move on to help establish themselves and their name. Either way I’m looking forward to the new wave of networks that will sprout up when Feedburner Networks officially launches near the end of the year.
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