I guess not…

Okay, the “AdSense for Feeds" was listed under the AdSense Setup tab alright and the procedure was simple enough just as they said it would be but when I got down to the list of existing feeds, nothing was there. Wait now…there’s a link below where my existing feeds should have been that leads to a help page that tells me how to migrate my existing (“burned”) feeds from FeedBurner to my AdSense account. Okay, that makes sense, Google can’t do everything you know. But what do I find on that less than helpful help page?

Google will soon provide a self-service process to migrate from an account on the original FeedBurner website to a Google Account. We have temporarily paused processing of new manual migration requests; we are working doggedly through the initial queue of requests and will re-open account migration services as soon as the first batch is completed.

Wonderful! They announced that a new service was ready to go and it’s not. Now ask me if I’m sick and tired of seeing this kind of thing. Go ahead…ask me.

Seems they’re still working on all those requests from the old “FeedBurner Ad Network” (FAN)?!?? You’ve got to be kidding me! I applied for that over a year ago and completely forgot about it when nothing ever happened, not even an email telling me my site didn’t cut the mustard. I even reapplied last May when FeedBurner announced that AdSense ads were now available for your "burned" feed through FAN and still nothing ever came of it and now this. Talk about a complete FUBAR of an operation. So I bang into my old FeedBurner account for my original site and sure enough, I’m still marked as a member of FAN for that particular feed. Still no ads though amazingly enough.

Absolutely poor management on Google’s part and no excuse for it–none whatsoever. Tell the whole world about this new service by plastering it all over the news, write up a “Here Ya’ Go!” type AdSense blog post and when site owners head to their existing AdSense account–it’s not ready. Who did they think were going to be the first to pounce on this new service but site owners who had already had “burned” feeds and AdSense accounts? Not exactly what you might call an minority group of players here. But wait, there’s also a major problem for those who don’t pay attention to the last line on the AdSense for Feeds page:

You can also (link)burn a new feed (link) right now to display this ad unit.

You do this and according to the comments I’ve read, apparently the new “burned” feed replaces your current one hence losing some or all of their subscribers in the process. Now there’s a kick in the face for you.

The good news to all this is that site owners who haven’t “burned” their feeds yet through FeedBurner can do so using the AdSense for Feeds "link" I referred to in the quote above without fear of losing subscribers, via your AdSense account. The reason for this is if I already have an existing “burned” feed that readers have subscribed to using that “burned” URL then I would lose those subscribers when the “burned” URL was replaced with the new one. However, I would keep the ones that originally subscribed to my raw feed from my site (the “unburned” one).

For those whose feeds are not yet “burned” and decide to do so via “AdSense for Feeds”, your current subscribers will automatically be redirected to your new “burned” feed so no loss is experienced which is the way FeedBurner has always worked. Of course this doesn’t mean you’ll see any ads right away if you do this, I figure you won’t see any until they get through that batch of FAN requests which have been piling up over the last several months but that’s just a guess on my part.

To just set the record straight, I’ve always liked Google and their offerings both online and offline. There’s always a decent amount of quality in both function and form in the majority of services Google provides so this debacle (IMO) of the new “AdSense for Feeds” service stands out like a thousand sore thumbs. The bottom line here is that Google announced the launch of a new service that was only half ready and compounded the error by not pointing out that site owners who already had "burned" feeds but had not previously applied for the FeedBurner Ad Network could not yet make use of the new service and that makes for a whole lot of users left out in the cold who’ve waited for this particular AdSense service to finally arrive.

Bad form all around if you ask me.

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And it seems she not only cooked up great dishes on her long running cooking show but she also cooked up shark repellent during her time in the OSS. Glad she never got the two mixed up:

Julia then worked with the OSS Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section, where she helped develop shark repellent. The repellent was a critical tool during WWII, and was coated on explosives that were targeting German U-boats. Before the introduction of the shark repellent, curious sharks would sometimes set off the explosives when they bumped into them.

Seems she was hoping she actually might become a spy but that never came about. Perhaps that she was 6’2” tall had something to do with it. Still, being Chief of the OSS Registry with the weight of top security clearances riding upon her shoulders is nothing to smirk at.

From 1944-1945, Julia was sent overseas and worked in Ceylon, present day Sri Lanka, and Kunming, China. During these last two years in the OSS, Julia served as Chief of the OSS Registry. Julia — having top security clearances — knew every incoming and outgoing message that passed throughout her office, as her Registry was serving all the intelligence branches. During her time in Ceylon, Julia handled highly classified papers that dealt with the invasion of the Malay Peninsula. Julia was fascinated with the work, even when there were moments of danger.

I always knew from my time in the US Submarine Force during the Cold War that my country was damn good at keeping it’s war related/military secrets to themselves but I never new they were that good. It seems that she was a lot more than a decent, funny, and rather unique chef on television that appeared to occasionally put a bit more wine into herself than she did into her cooking. But then again…looks can be deceiving can’t they?

Bless ya’ Julia, we never knew.

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This requires no explanation

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Does my heart good to see that. Just goes to prove that not only does crime not pay, it can also give you one hell of a headache.

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…and the power goes out.

Ooookay. So maybe somebody turned on the air conditioner that broke the power company’s back, who knows?

Wait…

…and the power comes back on.

Power up the computer, reboot the wireless router, Internet’s back, did my post get auto saved? Yes, it did–onward.

Banging through the first paragraph now and on to the second–alright, time to scrounge that image off of Google News, got it! Insert into post, align properly and…

…the power goes out. [Insert: Vivid cursing here]

Wait…

So what the hell is this anyway? It’s beautiful, it’s sunny, not even a breeze so what is it this time? Another squirrel blow itself up in the sub-station? Sheeesh!

Power comes back on.

This time I’m waiting. Empty the dish washer, put away dishes, put away freshly washed clothes, walk around house just to say I did, come back in…power still on. Power up computer, reboot wireles router, check for saved post, onward once again…

Second paragraph down and onto the third–made it! A fourth and final closing paragraph, tag and…

…power goes out.

Okay, that’s it! Call power company, get a recording, says that Newport is experiencing a power outage (no sh**), all crews working on it, blah-blah-blah-natter-natter-natter, so why wait on hold just to get a tired, fed up operator who will just tell me the same thing?

Ate dinner, went for a walk with my honey.

And now we’re back. Did the power up, reboot routine again, post was saved as usual, finished it up and publish…success! It’s up! it’s there! Power’s still on! Four hours to publish a four paragraph post but I made it!

Yes!

Now onto the next. Do I even remember what it was supposed to be about? Oh yeah, it was about…

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