GoKawiilAugust 14, 2023 How Google helped destroy adoption of RSS feeds
Although RSS feeds are alive and still heavily used today, their level of adoption has suffered because of how difficult a handful of popular technology companies have made it to use them. Google, especially, has relied on the open web RSS protocol to gain so much market share and influence, but continues to engage in behavior that exploits the open web at the expense of its users. As a result, Google has single-handedly contributed to the reason many users who once relied on RSS feeds have stopped using them.
Below, we dive deeper into Google's track record of what appears to be an Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish model. The company has continuously built and extended their products around the free and open RSS protocol to gain user trust, only to then remove RSS support once they've locked users in, and ignore any complaints or requests to restore it. Not only is it a blatant disregard for RSS and a huge disappointment to those who use it, it poses one of the biggest threats to the freedom and openness of the internet.
Google removes RSS button from Chrome browser
Early versions of Chromium (on which the Google Chrome browser is based) once came with RSS integration baked in. The browser had a built-in RSS button that would display in the browser location bar when any website you're on had an RSS feed available. Clicking the button would then take you to the RSS feed for that web page, allowing a user to easily subscribe.
RSS subscribe icon in the toolbar of Google Chromium
Then, the RSS button disappeared without notice, and no reason was given for its removal.
Google acquires FeedBurner and limits RSS
In 2007, Google acquired FeedBurner, an RSS feed service that allows website owners to monetize their RSS feeds. FeedBurner works by replacing ordinary RSS feeds with private ones that only Google owns. The feeds are modified to include advertisements, affiliate links, and other tracking mechanisms like read counts, click-through rates and subscriber counts. The feeds are then used by FeedBurner users to track their readers and monetize from their behavior.
Google FeedBurner dashboard
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