Waidaminnit, wasn't RSS a Web 2.0 thingy once?

Feedburner CEO Dick Costolo's jumping from the Googleship to join Twitter has got the chatterati hitting the keyboards, and among the cries of woe are:

- That RSS - that well known Web 1.0 technology apparently - is so over

- That Google spent $100m of dumb money and did nothing with Feedburner and this is the dumbest thing it's done.

Lest we forget, once upon a time in, oh, 2004, RSS was held up as one of the underpinning technologies of Web 2.0. How times change. Besides, if the Gartner Hype Curve has taught us anything, its that a technology starts to get useful after all the hype has drained. Dick hopping back up the hype curve to Twitter must signify that nadir, or something close to it. Its time to buy shares in Dave Winer*, or something like that

Also, lest we forget, Feedburner is hardly the only thing, nor the biggest, that Google has paid over-the-top dollar for and then broken or set aside, to play with the next shiny shiny toy. Its in the nature of big corporates because (i) transaction costs are high, its often cheaper to offer a price no one can ignore, (ii) it is extraordinarily hard for big corporates to integrate new, bright startups and (iii) for some odd reasons, it is a truism that an ex founder with a large fortune in cash almost inevitably is in need of a new project where they can be a top dog and cash out again.

The thought of course occurs - if Costolo flitting to Twitter marks the death of RSS as Web 2.0 icon, does it do the same for Google? Is this the point we crown the New Borg?

(Update - Fred Wilson, who invested in Feedburner, and Twitter, reckons that rumours of RSS's death are somewhat premature. I believe him - and he didn't have to say that y'know, they sold Feedburner already )

*I wonder if he will now stop reminding everyone he invented it