My "campaign" (actually a cry in the dark) to get Ev Williams a golden Google parachute caught the attention of Marc Canter, whose note on the subject lent me unexpected support. (Marc photo courtesy of the great Fred Davis.)

First let's be clear. Marc opposes my idea. "Give It Time" is his headline.

But a few paragraphs below that, he offers what I think is ample evidence that EvHead's (that's his nickname, EvHead) time should be up:

I'm sorry to see that Blogger's latest incarnation doesn't support multiple kinds of syndication formats, and is going with Atom only. It would be trivially easy to do so. (Blogger Pro users can still create RSS 1.0 feeds, as I understand things.) A couple of months ago, someone from the Blogger team suggested to me that this was a server issue -- that several million users creating more than one kind of XML file would somehow be problematic from a resources standpoint. Really? A problem for the company with (best guess) 100,000 servers and plans to offer anyone who wants it a gigabyte of disk space for e-mail? Google has a right to do this, just as UserLand has a right not to support Atom (and Movable Type not to support RSS 2.0 and so on). It would be nice to see a resolution to this fork in the RSS road, though.

Whether a company has a right to do something isn't the question, when you're thinking about whether to keep an executive in charge. To only require top executives to do what they have a right to do is setting the bar absurdly low. (Not Dennis Kozlowski low, but pretty low.)

And remember, I'm not advocating Google do anything at all harmful to Ev (except maybe to his ego). He's going to be absurdly rich, wealthy beyond his wildest schemes, with time to indulge in whatever suits his fancy. There's a reason why they're called "golden parachutes." (This is actually two, from an air show.) If your "Uncle Louie" left you as I'm advocating Google leave Ev, you'd kiss the ground the late sainted Louie was buried in, if you get my drift.

What Marc confirms has happened is that EvHead destroyed blog syndication as we know it. In order for a newsreader to give you all the news of the day, it must now be able to read three different formats -- RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0 and Atom.

Why? Because EvHead was playing little Microsoft games. We have to own the standard. Nyaah, nyaah, nyaah. (Remember, he could have been spending time creating something cool like Blogware.)

I thought Google's corporate mantra was, "first, do no harm?"

Well, Williams has done great harm here, and with no discernible user benefit.

Add that to the record of the new Blogger, which took a year to get out the door and provides no additional depth, and I think you have a case. (Throw in Blogware, a great example of what else Blogger could have done with its time and money, and it's case closed.)

Again, we're not convicting this guy of a crime. I'm just telling his bosses they can do better, much better. And they can.