I was researching a new feature for SpokenWord.org when I came across a site that lists an old URL to the primary IT Conversations RSS feed. Curious, I clicked on it and discovered someone else’s content there. I just assumed that when we abandoned that URL years ago it would simply disappear, but that appears not to be the case. (http://feeds.feedburner.com/ITConversations-EverythingMP3)

I’m not sure how this happened. Are some site looking for abandoned FeedBurner URLs? How do they learn that a URL has become dead? If you’re thining of changing or abandoing an RSS feed URL hosted at FeedBurner — okay, I admit you should never do that — just remember that someone else may come along and grab that URL for themselves once the FeedBurner free-redirection period has ended. You’re probably better to keep that URL forever even if it means you need to run permanent redirection at the target.