When will Google acquire Feedburner?

TechCrunch has an article asking “When will Yahoo acquire Technorati?” and it makes a good argument as to why it should, and probably could, happen.

I reckon the same thing goes for Google and Feedburner, a move I’ve suggested here before. Look at what Google is doing with GoogleBase, which as explained here is really about building out the world’s biggest XML database. That’s got to be complementary to Feedburner’s business. Then consider if you put Feedburner and Google’s RSS ad programs together, you’ve got a pretty massive headstart on any other competitor at a time when MS and Yahoo are both coming into the market. After all, if RSS does take off this year as everyone is predicting thats going to be a big growth market in Google’s core online advertising space (and let’s face it Google hasn’t really done anything of note in the RSS space yet and would get some much needed RSS cred along with this acquisition as well).

The nice thing going in Feedburner’s favour is that once you’ve published your feed at a particular address it’s an absolute bitch to move it anywhere else. So Feedburner’s critical mass is absolutely valuable as are the deals it has done with big publishers like Reuters. I just can’t see Google letting such a key asset in the online advertising market end up in the hands of Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Filed under: Feeds