It looks like Google feed fetcher has a memory span much shorter than the one of a goldfish (which is more than three months, and not five seconds as commonly believed). For weeks, my web site has been answering Google feed fetcher that http://www.rfc1149.net/blog/feed/atom has permanently moved (301 redirection) to http://www.rfc1149.net/blog/feed/. Each and every time, Google feed fetcher reads the feed from its new location… then forgets about it; it will ask for the old location the next time it runs.

209.85.238.88 - - [07/Dec/2010:06:00:18 +0100] "GET /blog/feed/atom HTTP/1.1" 301 306
  "-" "Feedfetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html
  [...] feed-id=2355462125646541597)"

209.85.238.230 - - [07/Dec/2010:06:00:19 +0100] "GET /blog/feed/ HTTP/1.1" 304 -
  "-" "Feedfetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html;
  [...]; feed-id=2355462125646541597)"

But this is not the end of it: some Google Reader users did indeed indicate the right feed, and Google feed fetcher also asks for it with a different feed-id:

209.85.238.230 - - [07/Dec/2010:06:49:47 +0100] "GET /blog/feed/ HTTP/1.1" 304 -
  "-" "Feedfetcher-Google; (+http://www.google.com/feedfetcher.html
  [...] feed-id=15198288757280251505)"

Google, why not remember this permanent redirection and unify those feeds by grouping them under the same feed-id? This would cut down the traffic and the work both for you and for me.

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