I’m not sure when this happened but King Nomar just let me know that Google have added a tool to their Webmaster Tools that allows you to check how many subscribers your RSS feeds have in Google’s feed readers (iGoogle, Google Reader, Orkut).
The numbers reported only count Google subscribers – but it’s interesting that Google are now tracking this information (makes me wonder how long it’ll be before subscriber numbers are used in their search algorithms (if they’re not already).
What I’m not sure is how this treats subscribers through feedburner feeds if you don’t have a feed on your domain. From what i can see the number in Webmaster tools is significantly less for me than what Feedburner reports my Google subscribers as (Google reports it at less than half what Feedburner does for Google subscriber numbers).
Via King Nomar
Yeah i seen it last night as well. I hope they would implement feedburner into that as well.
What do you think ?
Well must say you gave me another idea what to write.
FYI Darren
Great news, I had to post it right away !
http://www.bontb.com/2007/09/google-webmaster-tools-now-with-rss-feed-count-subscriber-stats/
That’s a really nice tool! I’m going to check it out right now.
They show just one for haaaah I have 200 in Feedburner
Thanks for the link Darren!
Happened after I logged out late last night. But at least they got rid of that pukey green. Still not sure I have unreserved faith that this data is accurate though. This says I have 2 and Feedburner says almost all of my subscribers are Google-based.
Quite interesting, but I am scared of my numbers. haha
These numbers are how many people subscribed to the feed with your actual domain name in it…
If somebody has subscribed to your feedburner feed, then it’s not included in the webmaster panel because it most likely doesn’t include your domain name.
This is mostly useful for sites that don’t use feedburner, or if you want to check how many people have subscribed to the comment feeds per article or per tag.
But the Google webmaster tools are really maturing and we cant complain too much as the tools are free:)
Darren – The discrepancy is most likely between people subscribed to a feed on the verified domain(s) that Webmaster Tools knows about (i.e., https://problogger.com/feed) and any other domains where your feed may be (i.e., feeds.problogger.net/problogger if you use MyBrand, feeds.feedburner.com/problogger, etc.). Since Webmaster Tools matches against the verified domain, it’s getting a subset of your total subscribers – whereas FeedBurner is seeing *all* requests to the feed, regardless of which alias the subscriber used to request it.
And yes, I’m in touch with the Webmaster Tools team. Stay tuned.
–Rick Klau
Google (FeedBurner)
nothing to say, i don’t use google’s webmasters tools, but i must disagree with you, A. Taylor.
we should complain a lot!
besides their passion for great tools, that’s what keeps them moving … our feedback (even when complaining) is gold.
im reading you through google, darren =)
That is strange that the data doesn’t match between the webmaster tools and Feedburner, considering that Feedburner was bought up by Google. I wonder if the two will begin to get more closely intertwined in the near future.
I’m also glad that they made the webmaster tools page look nicer, because the green was not very attractive =D.
i’m going to have to check this out. thanks for the news darren
What am I missing? When I log into GA I see my dashboard, but nothing at all about “subscriber stats”…?
Is there someplace else I should be looking, or something else I need to sign up for?
Thanks.
Chris:
The subscriber stats are found in Google Webmaster Tools, not in Google Analytics (although I believe the two can be linked). In GWT, go to Statistics on the left-hand menu, and it will expand out; then click on Subscriber Stats.
It might have something to do with updating it for everyone. This may be a Beta for certain people. OR…You may have just not deleted your cache.
Thanks, Kabitzin. Now it makes a lot more sense!
Could the difference between the Feedburner numbers and the Google numbers be due to people who subscribe directly via Google Reader, without using the subscription option of the blog itself?
Considering Google owns Feedburner now, it’s only a matter of time before these services are merged and we start seeming more integration under the overall “Google Webmaster Tools” banner.
Thanks for the clarification Rick.
I’d actually love to use MyBrand – but as ProBlogger is on b5media’s feedburner account I’m told that we can’t have it on each of our feeds.
Oh! That was a nice surprise :)
i think using webmaster tools everything is posibble
That depressing more than anything…or maybe it doesn’t really matter, total feed count is all that really matters, maybe it might suggest something about your readership…interesting anyway!
Perhaps, I’m missing something. How do I actually check for the number of subscribers?
I am trying to figure out how many subscribers I have and I am having a hard time. What am I doing wrong?
I was just searching for the information how to check my google subscribers. Thank you!