Business 2.0 ran an interesting article entitled, “Redefining the RSS feed” regarding FeedBurner. The article is based largely on an interview with the company’s CEO, Dick Costolo, and it explores the company’s business model, and discusses how it integrates advertisements into publishers’ feeds and reports back on the size and scope of their audience. It also touches upon how the revenue generated by the ads is split between FeedBurner and the publisher.

One of the more salient questions that emerge within this article is whether or not FeedBurner will be able to compete with behemoths like Google as they enter into this market. Apparently, Costolo thinks that the network externalities that FeedBurner has built due to its early lead will be enough to withstand new entries by larger, better-recognized and better-funded, competitors. Personally, I do not see any significant switching costs for publishers, and the network effects, in my humble opinion, are minimal in this context.

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