I saw this post from Michiel the other day.  BTW, Michiel has a pretty interesting blog – you should check it out.   The concept sucked me in so I decided to give FeedBurner a try.  Here’s how it works: (1) You sign up on the site, (2) You pick a RSS/ATOM feed that you want to work with and (3) You can add all sorts of cool functionality to that syndication feed by letting FeedBurner run it for you.  They don’t replace your current feed.  Quite the opposite, the service republishes your current feed adding their enhanced functionality.

I see a lot cool things I would use this for: (1) tracking – you can get some anonymous information about who reads your blog, (2) you can see “click through” information – which articles people saw in your feed and clicked on to be zipped to your site, (3) the ability to setup a “mobile version” of your feed, (4) HTML formatting of your XML feed, (5) automatic feed conversion and targeting based on the functionality of the reader the user is pulling it down with.

Some pretty neat stuff.  Definitely worth taking a look at.  What’s stopping me from switching altogether?  There doesn’t appear to be an easy way for non Moveable Type users to get their current subscribers moved to the new feed by redirecting them from the existing link.  Get that fixed, and I’m all over this…

Just moved my atom newsfeed over to feedburner, and if you're into that whole feed thing, I strongly suggest you do the same.

It will allow you to:
* Get stats on your feed traffic
* Distribute Atom or RSS versions of your feed automatically with SmartFeed™.
* Enhance your Feed content
* Make your feed XML web browser-friendly
and more, and more, and more.

Related...

[Musings from the Void]

Ever wanted to talk to Microsoft about that one feature you wished the company would change in a product or on a Web site? The Usability Research Group at Microsoft is interested in talking to you!

http://www.microsoft.com/usability/jump1.htm

Following that link will take you to a place where you can fill out a form that will be used to try to match you with a study that's in line with your experience and interests.  It looks like most of the studies are done on the main campus in Redmond or the Mountain View campus in California.  However, there are some studies that are done online and in the field.

If you are selected for a study, you get the choice of a gift for an extensive gratuity list:

• Windows XP Professional
• Office XP Professional Edition
• Office 2003 Professional Edition
• FrontPage 2003
• MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries
• Encarta Reference Library 2004
• Office X for the Macintosh
• Microsoft Natural Keyboard
• Halo (Xbox & PC)

Cool stuff...

During Scripting Week (July 19-23), the Microsoft Scripting Guys will take you from complete scripting neophyte to bona fide scripter in just five easy lessons. Aimed at system administrators with little or no experience in scripting, the Scripting Week webcasts are designed to get you started with scripting and automation, beginning with the basics and continuing on through such advanced techniques as reading and writing to text files, adding command-line arguments to your scripts, and using WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) to create useful system administration tools. A fun time is guaranteed for all! (Guarantee not valid for those who don’t have a fun time.)

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/webcasts/default.mspx