Google has introduced timestamps to Google Reader today. They indicate when a post was published and when it was received by Google Reader. While testing FeedDemon I noticed that it was receiving posts often faster than Google Reader. I had a look at the timestamps more closely throughout the day and it is quite funny. Here are some examples:
There doesn’t seem to be any rule. From what I can say it doesn’t depend on timezones and it also doesn’t depend on the blog’s popularity. Is there any secret to fetching feeds? I mean, there are ping services like Ping-o-matic which are used by many blogs, I guess; it is even a WordPress default service, so there shouldn’t be much difference. Also it surely doesn’t depend on pinging Google’s own blog search. I ping that one myself but often posts are delayed for more than two hours.
So if you wonder why a blog post that you just received has already ten comments when you click through, there is an answer now. Anyone has an explanation? It’s not an essential question but would be good to know. 
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