Most bloggers use FriendFeed which is a service that integrates all your social networking, bookmarking, microblogging activities in one livestream. You can access everything from one page.
FriendFeed has had this option of including the Feed URL of your blog as well. If your feed happens to be from feedburner (most people’s are) then FeedBurner counts to total number of friends / subscribers on FriendFeed and adds them to your subscriber count in Feedburner.
What does that mean?
This simply means that you get an increased number of subscribers to show up in your subscriber counts which essentially do not exist. They exist only as a subscriber in FriendFeed. Although, this seems fine to some, others object to the inflated subscriber count. I suddenly relalized that maybe, just maybe Feedburner may have discountinued this practice!
Has FeedBurner Stopped counting subscribers from FriendFeed?
I myself am a subscriber to Friendfeed and have 53 people subscribed which showed in my Feedburner stats till yesterday. Here are two screeshots of the statistics on 22 December 2009 and 24 December 2009.
Feedburner wih FriendFeed Statistics
I had a total of 106 subscribers to Programming Kid, but today I just saw my feedburner feed count drop to a shocking 63 subscribers! That’s a drastic 40% reduction. Though, In 3 months, these number do not mean much for a new blog, still this has left me wondering is this a glitch or has Feedburner decided to stop counting FriendFeed subscribers?
Feedburner without FriendFeed Statistics
As you can clearly see from the above two pie charts of Feedburner, the subscriber count has taken a beating and the subscribers of FriendFeed have just suddenly vanished.
Update : After 4 days, the feedburner count of subscriptions from FriendFeed have resumed. The feed count has as a result risen up. It seems it was a temporary issue. Our readers have shared their past experiences saying these occurrences are common. Sigh!
I think this will help reflect the true feed subscriber count but I really dont know why there has not been any offical announcement from either FriendFeed or Feedburner. How many of you were using this? How has this effected you? Do you feel this is a right move?
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello Kid ..
its really shocking to see this.. will check mine later ..
i wanted to ask .. do u take your feedburner stats screenshots every time .. or .. this time u knew that feedburner will be providing something like this
LOL Jaspal, I dont take any screenshots in feedburner, incidentally, feedburner has the feature through which you can choose the date you wish to see the stats for. Maybe this screenshot will clear things out http://screensnapr.com/u/me5f8t.png
I just happen look around when I surf. LOL 
All the best
This news may bring heart attack to some bloggers!
Even I was a bit surprised when I saw it, i thought my friend feed account has got disabled or something. We are yet to get an official confirmation from Feedburner about this but whatever the reason maybe it’ll make feed counts more transparent.
That’s right, even I can notice a huge downfall in blog’s subscribers.
Nothing new about this, it has happened several times in the past, welcome to a sucky Feedburner
Oh Well! If it can not be cured, it must be endured.
Even I saw a huge drop in my subscriber count and ignored it since Feedburner has been consistently inconsistent. Thanks for letting us know the reason. I have stopped worrying about what Feedburner does and how it works.
Thanks for sharing your views Raju. I think I also need to stop giving much attention to Feedburner now.
Its still good for us.. Because Including FF into feeds is kind of mis leading…
I am not sure about it. I hnpe it is good for us.
Oops. I’m not going to be scared. From the beginning itself, my FriendFeed subscribers were not added to FeedBurner!
Friend Feed is back again! Now feedburner stats are counting those FF subscribers again!
It happens at times… I don’t think Feedburner has discontinued the counting from FriendFeed. I had such an experience in the past before… Now, it is happening again… But like what Bhanu said, I believe my feedburner count will be back very soon…
Thanks for the comment Charles. The update is that FeedBurner it seems has resumed the count from today! You and @Bhanu were right. Kudos!
No problem about it!
So what was it? A glitch in feedburner. Feedburner shows this type of behavior often. I hope they’ll improve the service.
Thats for the info, but that is something I have never really paid attention to. Looking at the number move like yoyos is not new. My idea is keep writing, keep blogging, keep glancing at the stats once in a while and all is well.
The numbers help you know your standing, how much more effort is required and keeps you motivated. Yes, hard work is foremost and most important but at times, its a feel good factor to witness some tangible results
thank u great information
There is a nice web based tool available at globinch.com. This provides a nice statistics of your feedburner feed.. Check it out
http://www.globinch.com/2010/10/01/check-feedburner-rss-feed-statistics-globinch-rss-feed-tool/
and the tool is
http://www.globinch.com/feedburner-rss-feed-stats/
Friendfeed subscribers will continue and not only with feedburner but also with MyYahoo. Though friendfeed subscribers are easier to obtain than real email subscribers from your direct RSS, they still subscribers – and that may make them suitable to be included in the count. It’s just that people who have already huge amount of subscribers in friendfeed get the Jackpot..
I am facing this same issue for the last 10 days now since I started noticing this. Has anybody else seen the same? Has feedburner stopped counting FF subscribers?