Google Buys FeedBurner

Google has burned another hole in its pocket, and this time it's almost literal.

How much was the damage? $100 million in cash
How much do I wish I was in on the deal? plenty.

Why this acquisition was necessary, I'm not quite sure - but many are speculating that it had something to do with the possibility of increased relevancy.

Explanation: Feedburner is a subscription service which requires a fee to participate. Spammers, which are tightwads by nature, preferred to stick with the freebie services, leaving the Feedburner databases primarily unscathed. Long story short, purchasing Feedburner would allow Google to better diagnose which blogs are legit and which ones aren't.

I don't really like that theory. It's just the word on the street.

I think Google just wanted to assimilate Feedburner's 425,000 +publishers/ subscribers into a larger project of some sorts.

Best of luck to all who can now afford a personal island!