Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Blogging
Found these interesting tidbits of search patterns from the Philippines on Google’s Zeitgeist page. Interesting that most of items searched were about entertainers and about entertainment (why Phantom of the Opera? Are they putting up a show there?). I mean it shouldn’t be a surprise really. I was wondering if people just go directly to their known sources and their bookmarks for their non-entertainment information. This snapshot was in March. It should be interesting if in April/May the search patterns change, it being election season and all. If it doesn’t, does that mean people don’t really research their candidates on the web?
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Also, I’ve also noticed a lot of bloggers are moving their stand-alone blogs on Blogspot and Wordpress.com to social networking site blogs. I guess there’s more immediate feedback on sites like Friendster, Multiply and MySpace with a built-in audience of friends.
Compare that to stand-alone blogs which would be harder for your friends to find if not attached to your profile. That and the constant gaming of search engines by putting regurgitated information passed off as blog posts just to go up the search results. Of course they need to do that in order to get click throughs for the ads plastered all over their blogs which is turning out to be the end all purpose of maintaining blogs these days.
That’s why as much as it’s annoying for me to maintain all these different accounts, it’s just easier for most people who genuinely just want to share their thoughts to friends and family on these blogs attached to social networking sites. It’s almost like it was a couple of years ago before people saw blogging as a job and just primarily make money off of it instead of just sharing stories. I feel the same way with Flickr. The pictures are genuine acts of sharing not just a bunch of content to bump up someone’s monthly revenue share.
And yeah, blogs are still a great way to publish rants.
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
JUNNIE
ok. here’s my Php0.94* on the issue of bloggers getting the most out of their thoughts. some people want to make money, some people don’t. some will make money. some won’t. i choose, and i love that you are on my side, to maintain an ad-free blog, detached from social networking sites and still enjoy the benefit of lurkers, fanboys (like my paparazzi) and regular patrons (friends and relatives).
just like you, and i made a post on this recently that i have other SNS profiles, but they’re existing for me to be in the loop with others. while others want to share for the good of all humanity, some are privy in their blogging and online persona. it all works out fine. part of the world wide web we are in. speaking about web. where is your review of spidey 3? you know you’re one of them that i trust with my reviews.
oh, and its friday? where is the radio playlist for today? hahaha
* - $ 2 cents yan, you can round it to Piso. :)
May 11th, 2007
daniel
I know what you mean about maintainig several accounts. I’ve had to open up accounts on many social networking sites to assure that my favorite nom de plume is consistently attached to my online persona (dropped the ball on last.fm - deebeedee there is a young bloke from England). Of course, those accounts I opened are largely unused and untouched (read: no content). Now if anyone develops a “write once, publish everywhere” app, that would be one killer app!
My only attempt to generate revenue is my post on Filipino iTunes where clicks lead one to iTunes and resulting sales earn me a few cents. So far I’ve received two $1.47 checks in the last two years that I have not cashed yet. :)
May 11th, 2007
markmomukhamo
[quote comment="3241"]ok. here’s my Php0.94* on the issue of bloggers getting the most out of their thoughts. some people want to make money, some people don’t. some will make money. some won’t. i choose, and i love that you are on my side, to maintain an ad-free blog, detached from social networking sites and still enjoy the benefit of lurkers, fanboys (like my paparazzi) and regular patrons (friends and relatives).
[/quote]
Hey Junnie! Yeah I don’t begrudge people who want to make money off their site (not anymore anyway — just me getting older I guess). I know I’ve dabbled with it myself. It just sets a tacky precedent — as a result, lots of people get on the bandwagon and then just abandon their blogs if it doesn’t work out. Then we get spammers taking over their derelict blogs sending out more spam. That’s just one bad side effect. Doesn’t it just makes you suspect just a bit what are the motivations of a personal blog with a ton of ads? I do but that’s just me.
I can’t surf around blogs anymore than I used to. Part of it is just information fatigue and part of it is because of the magic of RSS. RSS lets me cut through the noise of blogs with ads and get to the content. Some — like your site of course — is worth the download wait.
I’m happy people aren’t just leaving blogging but shifting their concerns to the social network blogs. It makes it easier for people to set-up and share their thoughts.
[quote comment="3242"]I know what you mean about maintainig several accounts. I’ve had to open up accounts on many social networking sites to assure that my favorite nom de plume is consistently attached to my online persona (dropped the ball on last.fm - deebeedee there is a young bloke from England). Of course, those accounts I opened are largely unused and untouched (read: no content). Now if anyone develops a “write once, publish everywhere” app, that would be one killer app!
My only attempt to generate revenue is my post on Filipino iTunes where clicks lead one to iTunes and resulting sales earn me a few cents. So far I’ve received two $1.47 checks in the last two years that I have not cashed yet. :)[/quote]
Hey DeeBeeDee! I know what you mean — some guy took clickmomukhamo as a username on myspace. Buti sana kung maganda yung page. Eh hindeh. And amen to the write once, publish anywhere app. I was thinking about it unfortunately I don’t have the php chops to put it together. But I found this — and it looks promising: fidght.com I hope they just add a few more sites soon.
May 11th, 2007
daniel
Thanks for the fidgt link. I’ll take a look at it later.
Oh and I meant to say “ensure” not “assure” and “maintaining” not “maintainig.” Doh. I wrote this pre-caffeine intake this morning.
May 11th, 2007
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