How I Lost 4,993 RSS Subscribers Overnight
Many have noticed that my RSS counter took a nose dive to 8,701 from 13,694 the night before. How did that happen? Did I really lose 4,993 subscribers in one day? The answer is no. I’m justing using it in the title because it sounds good. So, how did it happen?
You Can Blame It On Google
It’s bad enough that Google is trying to play God on the Internet by dictating how we link to other sites, they had to go and turn off their Feedfetcher that report the number of Google Reader users. This was the make up of my RSS subscribers last night.
And this is how the stats looks today.
Noticed that the Google Feedfetcher information is missing. I should note that this is not the first time Google had a problem with Feedfetcher not reporting. The last time it happen, the problem was fixed the next day. I expect the RSS count to return to normal tomorrow.
- Posted in The Net
- 62 comments what's your take?
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Thanks for posting this. The same thing happened to my subscriber numbers. Glad to know it wasn’t just me!
Reply to this commentYeah everyone got done!
Reply to this commentLost abuot 30% RSS Subscribers
Reply to this commentAnd I was almost worried that I lost the few readers (had close to 50 now down to close 30), than when I saw the title of Johnchow.com on my feed reader I was like whaaa…I should shush the guy lost 4k
Evil title…
Reply to this commentYeah, me too! I mean yesterday I had 19 readers, today I have 18… oh never mind…
Reply to this commentyou should try to take over the internet like google! Google hates you very much mr chow! you need to do an evil john chow attack on them … lol
Reply to this commentsomething like ” RSS feed numbers resurrection: fight back of John chow ”
or “Playing with you :curse of Google ” 
Reply to this commentI almost had a heart attach this morning when my RSS numbers dropped by almost 50%. Then I caught up with all the posts around the blogosphere from overnight and saw several people were reporting the problem. Phew!
Reply to this commentHeart attach? I meant heart attack, of course.
Reply to this commentHey having a reserve heart attached is not a problem
(maybe you were attaching something to your mail when you commented? :P)
Reply to this commentHeart attach sounds quite cute too! Actually quite relevant in a twisted way!
Reply to this commentwow, i saw your rss numbers before the post! glad you spotted the issue
Reply to this commentSame thing here … amazing how a Google owned service can fail to report correct numbers for its own Feedreader
Reply to this commentIt’s happening all over, many blogs experiencing this. ProBlogger had the same problem too.
Reply to this commentits just a short term thing, not a big deal at all
Reply to this commentYou right, it’s not big deal, but still Google suck.
Reply to this commentThanks for posting this info. Mine did the same, but I didn’t think much of it. lol. Now I know
Reply to this commentI noticed a big change today and my RSS is not big enough to bother showing yet. Now I know I am not the only one.
Reply to this commentI think Feedcatcher may be one of those unreliable and hence bad sites. They should get their PR knocked down.
I was wondering how this happend
Reply to this commentI was affected too, let’s hope they remedy this situation…a few PR bitchslaps outta do it!
Reply to this commentThey were fake numbers anyways, multiple subscriptions to the same person. How many were new subscribes John? If I am wrong with my thinking I am very sorry. It still was awesome to see that kinda of growth anyways.
Reply to this commentYou need to read the post again.
Reply to this commentFinally! Someone is standing up to the big guys. Got this link from Daniel’s Daily Blog. I like it. Count me in.
Google
Reply to this commentThose of you who are tired of being “hamstrung” by the big guys might want to check it out.
http://www.courtneytuttle.com/2007/11/01/blogging-zoom-coup-against-media/
I think this also makes it tough for directory blogs who considers RSS subscribers as one criteria to rank them.
Reply to this commentI blogged this earlier in my “RSS meltdown” post:
http://www.seopher.com/articles/rss_meltdown__everyone_loses_half_their_readers
Darren Rowse lost like 15,000 subscribers - although things should be back to normal tomorrow.
Reply to this commentLol@ “How Google is trying to play GOD on the Internet”!!!!!
Reply to this commentI lost 51% about 800 RSS Subscribers
http://adsense-tw.com/archives/892
Reply to this commentYou win some, and you loose some.
The best part is: there are always NEW and much more interested, vibrant, energetic people out there who will discover our blogs and websites as long as we target the good niches out there.
Good luck everyone.
Reply to this commentFor some reason, I never noticed the ‘FeedBurner Email Subscriptions’ until today. Is this a recent addition to the graph, or just my own tom-foolery?
Reply to this commentNo it`s not new … maybe you just missed it.
Reply to this commentOr he never offered a RSS by Email option.
Reply to this commentSeems like this happens to my blog often, I lost half my RSS in one day?
Reply to this commentClick for Nick..How to keep a Business Running…
You are not the only one…
Reply to this commenthttp://www.kedoa.com/blog/web/widgetbucks-and-feedburner-both-playing-up-today/
I love the title because I”m sure it is what everyone was thinking for the last while. I noticed it earlier and was curious when I saw this post. Just a SLIGHT difference.
Reply to this commentthanks for posting this — i was wondering why my subscribers suddenly dropped by almost half. glad to know it is not just happening to me.
Reply to this commentJohn - Thanks for posting this. I noticed this as well but I wasn’t as quick to figure out the source for the drop in my subscriber count. I don’t have the subscriber base that you do so my numbers aren’t as dramatic as yours but any time you loose about 30% of your subscribers overnight its bound to raise some eyebrows. Especially your own.
Reply to this commentIf this is what could happen when one component of Google’s services goes down, imagine if the entire Google system/network/universe goes down?
Reply to this commentAnd this also shows how powerful Google is!
Reply to this commentI would have launched my own search engine
Reply to this commentI also noticed this on my blog - lost about 50 RSS subscribers overnight. I didn’t panic because I figured it was just a temporary glitch - looks like I was right.
But now I know what the problem was - thank John!
Reply to this commentWith all the heat generated by the downgrading of PRs, this would have resulted in a lot more of heat except for this clarification. Thank God that it is just a mechanical problem and not something permanent!
Reply to this commentGreat post, I lost 50% of my readers in one day and was wondering if it was from my latest DoS script but this clears things up a bit. Thanks!
Reply to this commentThis happened to me as well. I lost my 30% subscriber which never happened before. I was surprised to see the feed subscriber stat. in feedburner yesterday.
Reply to this commentDid everyone hear about the Google pagerank victim’s buttons? I thought that was really funny, sort of pagerank victim’s anonymous
Reply to this commentYeah, my feed count was cut in half this weekend. I was wondering what was going on. Thanks for the info.
Reply to this comment
same here, i have been monitoring my feed for quite a while. they change all the time. it is a bot? I wonder. 
Reply to this commentLooks like this has been fixed:
Reply to this commenthttp://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/archives/2007/11/sunday_subscriber_count_drop.php
This explains the white flag, I had wondered what google was doing to ya. Hope it all gets worked out.
Reply to this commentWell, It’s back to normal now.
Reply to this commentWell. it is fine and how do you keep it new always.
Reply to this commentLooks like the stats are back to normal. I actually got a nice little jump in my feedburner stats today.
Reply to this commentThanks for these interesting fact, this means i don’t have to look for my losses myself :)!
Reply to this commentNot again. Google’s FeedBurner is experiencing a glitch as of the moment. I wonder what are they doing with their system.
fyi
Reply to this comment