Google has acquired RSS specialist Feedburner for around $100m.

Feedburner’s customers are said to include the Wall Street Journal, the BBC and Amazon. Retailers and travel agents are now sending promotional offers to online customers via Feedburner.

Google sees the technology as opening the way for its huge array of advertisers to reach some of the most active groups of Web users, like social networkers, or the growing numbers using mobile phones.

Susan Wojcicki, Google’s vice president of product management wrote in her blog, “We’re constantly looking for ways to identify and offer new tools for content creators and Web site publishers,” adding that the purchase helps it provide new tools for its customers.

Feedburner’s analytics also help Web publishers know who reads their sites, as well as embedded advertising in RSS feeds.

Feedburner Co-founder and Chief Executive Dick Costolo told reporters on a conference call, “It is going to get more and more important for publishers to have this round-trip view of their audience.” Costolo is joining the Google board.

This is just the latest in a series of rapid moves by Google to consolidate the fast-growing online advertising market. The deal will expand Google’s existing blog advertising service, AdSense into feeds.

CNN reports, “Feedburner counts more than 430,000 Web site publishers as users of RSS. A total of 736,000 RSS feeds, including roughly 110,000 audio or video feeds, are delivered to readers as publishers update their Web sites, the company said. The 30-employee company will remain based in Chicago.

“Feedburner has raised $10 million from Mobius Venture Capital, Portage Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Union Square Ventures. ”