Google Buying FeedBurner (Rumor)

Google Blogoscoped is reporting the latest Google rumor - that Google could be acquiring the popular RSS management & stats service. Tony Ruscoe writes, "Not only would this deal allow Google to provide better stats for feeds – which they could then integrate into their new version of Google Analytics – but they could also allow users to more easily include AdSense (or DoubleClick) ads in their feeds and provide better support for Blogger and all their other services which produce RSS or Atom feeds." However, not everyone is excited about this possible purchase; Matthew Hurst of Data Mining laments, "This has me worried. Google hasn’t been hitting at 100% for the companies it has acquired…FeedBurner, while a big fish in the blogosphere is going to look like plankton in the Googleplex. Will it survive? Will my stats disappear?"

Personally, I’d like to have the possibility of inserting Adsense into my feed, as long as it’s in addition, and not instead of, the other ad opportunities that Feedburner currently offers.