There are good blogs, and there are bad blogs. In an ideal world, all the bad blogs would just go away and no one would ever read them, and all the good blogs – the ones with great design and even better content – would float to the top and thrive.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. And any blog, good or bad, has the same chance of making it onto the Technorati Top 100. Unfortunately, Technorati doesn’t actually judge the socially redeeming value of a blog; it only gauges popularity, so dumb blogs make it onto the list all the time. Here are a few that have made the list despite their banality.
Really? You couldn’t come up with a better name than Balloon Juice? Anyway, this blog completely sucks. It’s just the rantings of a pop-political commenter wannabe. Actually it’s less ranting and more just quoting news stories and adding a few extra words that are supposed to make us angry, depressed, etc. Blah, blah, blah. No real value here.
Although Yglesias might be smarter than Balloon Juice, that doesn’t mean it’s not horrible. Yglesias is like the random musings of a drunken sociology professor who couldn’t get his PhD research approved by committee and has since spent the last 10 years teaching in a community college in Omaha. Sure it might sound kind of smart, but it’s still just a lot of big block quotes from large media organizations, peppered here and there with uninspired analysis.
I’m not exactly sure what they’re spinning here, but it’s definitely dead. It’s just a bunch of randomly compiled links to other news stories about celebrities, politics, vegetarianism, welding, and just about anything else you can think of. There is no focus. No attempt at a theme. It’s just one big linkbaiter with content that’s just about as intriguing as The View, but without the witty repartee.
What’s up with all these pseudo news sites that simply take news rehashed from other sites, and rewrite the same opinions and viewpoints that have already been rehashed on cable news and 10,000 other blogs? Just because this one is vaguely using Tyler Durden as its mascot, doesn’t make it any more interesting.
What’s with all the news sites that simply compile and re-run news stories printed on other blogs and news sites? If you can’t think of something original to say, don’t say it at all. Get some survey software and find out what people really think of your display.
Conclusion
These dumb blogs are on the Technorati top 100, so there must be something redeeming about them, right? Nope. Remember, Technorati simple ranks popularity, not quality – something that simple survey software could judge.
The fact that blogs like these can make it onto the Technorati Top 100 only reflects badly on the rest of us. Who’s to blame? All the people who go to these sites, read them, share them with friends, and generally enjoy reading re-hashed news stories that don’t raise thought-provoking questions or present original ideas. It’s not Technorati’s fault these are popular blogs; it’s our fault. Friends don’t let friends read stupid blogs, and it looks like we’ve all fallen down.
This is a guest post by Annie Wallace, a stay-at-home mom who blogs on viral marketing.