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Google, which runs the Web's premier search site, has purchased Pyra Labs, a San Francisco company that created some of the earliest technology for writing weblogs, the increasingly popular personal and opinion journals.The buyout is a huge boost to an enormously diverse genre of online publishing that has begun to change the equations of online news and information. Weblogs are frequently updated, with items appearing in reverse chronological order (the most recent postings appear first). Typically they include links to other pages on the Internet, and the topics range from technology to politics to just about anything you can name. Many weblogs invite feedback through discussion postings, and weblogs often point to other weblogs in an ecosystem of news, opinions and ideas.
maybe they are going the alexa way. and maybe the cache pages in future will also have "user comments"
good thinking 99!
Blog:
A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.
So they are not someone thinking they are in a forum speaking to a mirror....which is what i always thought it was ;)
If a "geocities google" had x blogs about microsoft, average the general opinion and add to PR/IR score.
All those below the coefficient saying "microsoft go to hell" are ignored, while any blog serious enough to praise MS will also be discounted. You could be "top blogger" by being the average :)
//added
wrote this offline, I guess im hedging with what egomaniac has said.
That might be a reason for allowing them to cache my pages again.
What is IR?
It's been banded round here a bit, and im sure its on a g/stanford PDF => basically all the factors "on the page"
Apart from entertainment value of blogs, i guess their is that value of turning blogs/opinions into votes.
Aside from that, though -> I'm a bit confused by this move as well...will be interesting to see what they do.
They are managing to keep the mainpage simple, but if you look at all the services they offer, they are indeed becoming a portal. The only thing they haven't offered is: yourname@google.com
This is a great acquisition by google. While I'd like to think it is mostly a philanthropic decision to help facilitate goodwill on the web we all know that while google has traditionally been a "non-evil" business, it is, in fact, still a business.
Several good speculations have been made about what google will do with Blogger. Site Comments? Decentralized News? Branding?
Anyway that they go this was a good decision.
99% of blogs are garbage, but they are also a way of finding out news JUST A LITTLE bit sooner than anyone else if you go "straight to the source". I.E. to a developer or CEO's blog. Nanopublishing provides a quick and easy way for intellectuals to share their thoughts. Very similar to this forum, but in a more one-sided fashion.
Blogs are a quick and efficient way of sharing information, just like so many other successful inventions of this century.
End ramble.
dcheney > Am I the only Internet user that finds blogs utterly inane and boring?
Nope. This notion that Willy Widget's opinion is interesting simply because Willy has an opinion is, IMHO, inane.
mat_bastian > regurgetating each others stuff
apropos
Brett_Tabke > where does a community site stop and a blog start?
Trade in hard cold facts, with citations, and I'll pay attention. Otherwise, it's regurgitation. As far as inanity is concerned I think the line between Community and Blog is somewhat blurred. Uninformed opinion has a way of creeping in under the door. My good friend, wife, has a phrase for it - "brain fart".
T
Thus, the term "cat blogs." People have blogs about their cats. Really. And there's a lot of them, too.
ahem, i'm in the process of setting up a pet blog ... no laughs please :-)
Am I the only Internet user that finds blogs utterly inane and boring
That is because you've yet to read my new and hilarious Blog which starts next year. Look! See how an Englishman weened on tea and crumpets copes with living in NC, USA! Watch! As his waistline gets bigger! Laugh! As more people ask if you can get to England by train and what language do they speak over there?
Okay, perhaps it will be a little inane then....
> wonder what DayPop is thinking...
My thought, too. I've always felt that the blog indices like daypop were filling in a gap that crawlers were missing. I do think that daypop, blogdex, and even fark represent areas that google may need to engage/attack as they continue on their un-portal-like path to portalization.
<added>
Also, remember the google api and how that was immediately drawn into the blog world? Hmmmm....
Thanks.
Re using the blogging software itself, I can see getting registered users to "vote 'n' quote" about results, though I imagine Google wouldn't want to relate these easily-manipulable datapoints to a page's ranking. ...OTOH, maybe if the system required the use of the Google toolbar, they could relate browsing activity to the voted-upon pages and subsequently drop any blog records which seemed too intimately connected with the voted-upon pages.
I imagine the chief yahoos who founded yahoo are cringing every time they visit their creation and are greeted with a popup ad. The IPO made yahoo eventually be taken over by soulless imaginationless people. But to console the founders they can look at the billion in their bank account.
Larry and Sergey may or may not realize just how much freedom they will lose, but nothing will bring them money faster than an IPO, so I'm sure they're willing to sacrifice their creation for that loss of self determination. But it's just a matter of time until things will change a lot @ google and I agree with those who view Google Blogger eventually looking like Yahoo Geocities does now.
I think blog news in general still uses mainstream news items to comment on.
Yep. As do forums.
As you know journalists have a lot of training in writing and they have to develop a network of credible sources, plus sophisticated information rertreival skills and feeds from the newsagencies.
Some journalists are credible. Some journalists are lazy hacks constrained by the demands of advertisers.
It takes a LONG time to write 500 words of perfectly grammar and spell checked original material which is based on facts rather than just opinion.
Rather like forums ;)
What is "fact"? What is "opinion"? (rhetorical - these arguments are hardly new to the media world)
I dont think blogs can ever replace journalists or mainstream news, but i think they are a very valid form of "new journalism" - a new form of journalism and news gathering that is just maturing as the cream struggles to the top.
Agreed, it's an addition, not a replacement. I like certain bloggers the same way I like certain journalists and will seek them out because they interest me and offer informed opinion.
As for the rest, who cares? :)
That's my story thanks for listening...
mind you i really can't see how they'd make a site commenting system without opening the door to huge abuse by webmasters given the lengths people will go to to spam the index already.
how would they moderate comments for every site in the index?!
..but providing necessary services for news on the net as Google needs it.
What I meant with that is, for the immediate future, I just think Google wants to make sure those most active and high qualty blogs keep providing daily links for their index/algo/freshness at no charge and on a stable basis.
If someone else took over, that blog/link base stability would be out of Google's control.
After that you focus on the market of free page hosting like Tripod, Wanadoo, etc. How many personal pages, and trafic did you think that can make?
Personally I like having a free site, then i can focus on content and having valueable content to make money with.
I have had coldfusion sites before, and it is nice to have all that functionality. But it costs so much.
Here's my blog for what it's worth.
Exploring The Truth
http://mindstream.blogspot.com
But blogger hosted blogs represents a small proportion of blogs on the net. Speaking personally most of the high quality blogs i follow use Mt, Greymatter, Radio and are usually hosted on their own server.
Excerpt from shellen.com [shellen.com]
While at Ev's apartment working on the new Pentium 4 killer, patent-pending Pyra V chip, we took a break long enough to have a picture snapped with some friends.
As for those befuddled by the buy, consider the fact that Pyra runs pyRads™ which just happens to be a perfect match for AdWords.
pyRads™ is a service for purchasing, managing, and serving micro advertising on web sites. Micro advertising is different than most banners and other forms of advertising you see on the web in that: 1) It's quick, easy, and low-cost for advertisers (and usually more effective). 2) To the audience, it's unobtrusive and can actually add value to a site, rather than annoyance. 3) It's usually text, rather than graphics (because that's what people read).
When you consider how important AdWords is to Google's profitability, the Pyra purchase makes perfect sense.
