Behind the scenes at FeedBurner

Written by Allen Stern - December 6, 2006

While I am here in Chicago, the good people at FeedBurner invited me for a tour of their offices. So I took the 125 Express bus over to their office.

I really like what FeedBurner is doing. I think the big analytics packages (WebTrends, Omniture, etc.) are playing catch-up (if anything) to try to figure out how to analyze feeds. While FeedBurner is "been there, done that."

Their office is split into two areas: one for engineers that is a bit darker, and the other side with the rest of the team. The office is setup in an open environment. The walls are painted in FeedBurner colors and it is so nice to see an office that does not have corporate tan walls.

The tour was guided by Traci, the FeedBurner public relations person. She is awesome, I have been exchanging emails with her for a while and she certainly knows her stuff! (side note: cap the B in FeedBurner or face the wrath that is Traci :) )

We went into the kitchen where they have, what appeared to be 100s of, letters and comments from users. Traci said these letters come in when people request a FeedBurner sticker and they put them up for the team to see. What a morale booster!

There is a desk with sticky notes of people's moods. I am thinking these are the differing levels of feed burning.

And look at that pile of cards! Someone get this person a rolodex, quick!

I spent some time with Eric Olson, who is the man. I thought I was the man, but I have decided to give him the title for now. He really knows his stuff when it comes to getting the most out of FeedBurner's tools and services.

I am sure most of you are using FeedBurner's services to manage your feeds. If you aren't, do it now, or be forced to eat Chicago deep style pizza forever. If you do, I will offer you a slice of the best pizza, NYC style.

Thanks to Eric, Traci and the whole FeedBurner team for allowing me to come visit and see what working life should be!

Photos from FeedBurner Offices

Below is a sample of the photos I shot...check all of the photos on Flickr

The FeedBurner fridge with all of the kind words from customers

More customer notes

Even more customer notes

Steve is thinking about burning some feeds

This is the FeedBurner mail station

The music they play... where is the Britney album?!?!

Traci is telling this guy, "Hey, Allen is right, NYC pizza is better than Chicago pizza!"

bei Feedburner zu Hause…

from webdevign on December 7, 2006 - 3:16am

ein interessanter Artikel darüber, was hinter den Kulissen von Feedburner so abläuft, findet sich bei Centernetworks.

...

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COMMENTS - Add New Comment

Submitted by Tim McAlpin on December 6, 2006 - 4:26pm.

love seeing other peoples places being messy, makes me feel all good, tidy, cleaned up inside :)

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Submitted by Anonymous... sorta on December 7, 2006 - 3:01am.

NYC pizza is better

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Submitted by Anonymous on December 7, 2006 - 4:41am.

Begone uncouth savage. We are here from the great Windy City to enlighten the unlettered masses who believe that NYC even knows what pizza should be. Bring forth the Deep Dish!

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Submitted by Chester on December 7, 2006 - 5:02am.

Though I think that Chicago has it's place on my dining room table, NY Pizza wins hands down time and time again. Just can't get enough of it!

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Submitted by Ben Watson (Thomson NETg) on December 7, 2006 - 9:47am.

I was actually surprised to see (literally) just how much of a startup FeedBurner is. I use their services for our blogs and they are invaluable but it is a bit disconcerting to see them being run on the 'back of an envelope'. Having run 2 startups myself I know it is always a challenge striking a balance between open entrepreneurship and rigid corporatism but I think FeedBurner is ready for the next evolutionary step by adding some polish while retainig their creativity.

Sincerely,
Ben

Ben Watson
VP, Collaboration
Thomson NETg
http://www.netg.com