21/08: The Power of Blog
Category: Submissions
Posted by: bragman
Matisse Enzer's Glossary of Internet Terms puts it this way:
”Blog -- (weB LOG) A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.”
So, basically, it is a web page, where one can write about anything, link to anything, and more. Other people can link to it, comment on it and so on. Rubish. Simple piece of software easy to manage even by a seven year old child.
But it is not the technical part of it that is complex in any way or even worth discussing, it is the development of services based on the fact that people like “blogging”. The feeling of a vast universe where I can stand on a small planet and shout from the top of my lungs about any kind of topic or issue, with a fair chance of being heard; this is what people get hooked on. And people do read other people’s blogs on a regular basis. Don’t get me wrong, bloggers are OK, rather victims in my view, victims of a new kind of marketing technique mascarading as “freedom of speech and expression”.
Why is this?
Because big corporations, especially computer industry ones, have recently started investing a lot of money and thought on how to compile the information from people’s blogs in order to make their products more consumer friendly. Rubish. Just another way to sell more. What will, and probably is already happening, are big databases compiling and crunching information about YOU, yes YOU and trying to find a way how to sell YOU more stuff. Of course every corporation will deny this, but You should be aware of the fact that this is what’s going on basically. And everybody is doing it, inc. Saint Google (so trusted and loved by many…), which I personally advice You to stay away from. They monitor EVERYTHING, from Your “beloved” Gmail account to Your blog.
Now, that is nothing bad one might argue, people get to say what they want, what do they care who reads it and analisyses it. Of course, that is perfectly fine, as long as everybody is on the same page on a few points:
1. Not every blog is really a personal blog, it can be anything or anybody behind it, keep that in mind.
2. Your blog is being scanned and monitored for corporation names and keywords already, so keep that in mind too.
3. Your blog WILL be scanned and monitored for other reasons in the future.
4. Your opinion counts, yes that is true, but at what price!
As I see it, this is just another way of “keeping your enemies even closer” by giving them a voice and freedom to express themselves (sometimes in exchange for money and/or services). All in all, blogs and all the social networking systems and development of it are just another way of crowd control. And an elegant one I must add.
And BTW, yes, Internet is shit.
Related reading:
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/P4TIh3NW6hTSjC/Blog-Mining-Gets-Real.xhtml
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/Q3kH38RY1EpnNd/Discovering-Real-Influencers.xhtml
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/pay_me_to_blog_about_your_product_or_service.html
http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2005/08/11/blog-junkets/
http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2005/08/10/blogging-god/
http://www.tomrafteryit.net/reasons-for-developing-paid-blog-post-ethics/
http://www.cymfony.com/nws_innws_story.asp?docid=20050617_54641.html
”Blog -- (weB LOG) A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.”
So, basically, it is a web page, where one can write about anything, link to anything, and more. Other people can link to it, comment on it and so on. Rubish. Simple piece of software easy to manage even by a seven year old child.
But it is not the technical part of it that is complex in any way or even worth discussing, it is the development of services based on the fact that people like “blogging”. The feeling of a vast universe where I can stand on a small planet and shout from the top of my lungs about any kind of topic or issue, with a fair chance of being heard; this is what people get hooked on. And people do read other people’s blogs on a regular basis. Don’t get me wrong, bloggers are OK, rather victims in my view, victims of a new kind of marketing technique mascarading as “freedom of speech and expression”.
Why is this?
Because big corporations, especially computer industry ones, have recently started investing a lot of money and thought on how to compile the information from people’s blogs in order to make their products more consumer friendly. Rubish. Just another way to sell more. What will, and probably is already happening, are big databases compiling and crunching information about YOU, yes YOU and trying to find a way how to sell YOU more stuff. Of course every corporation will deny this, but You should be aware of the fact that this is what’s going on basically. And everybody is doing it, inc. Saint Google (so trusted and loved by many…), which I personally advice You to stay away from. They monitor EVERYTHING, from Your “beloved” Gmail account to Your blog.
Now, that is nothing bad one might argue, people get to say what they want, what do they care who reads it and analisyses it. Of course, that is perfectly fine, as long as everybody is on the same page on a few points:
1. Not every blog is really a personal blog, it can be anything or anybody behind it, keep that in mind.
2. Your blog is being scanned and monitored for corporation names and keywords already, so keep that in mind too.
3. Your blog WILL be scanned and monitored for other reasons in the future.
4. Your opinion counts, yes that is true, but at what price!
As I see it, this is just another way of “keeping your enemies even closer” by giving them a voice and freedom to express themselves (sometimes in exchange for money and/or services). All in all, blogs and all the social networking systems and development of it are just another way of crowd control. And an elegant one I must add.
And BTW, yes, Internet is shit.
Related reading:
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/P4TIh3NW6hTSjC/Blog-Mining-Gets-Real.xhtml
http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/Q3kH38RY1EpnNd/Discovering-Real-Influencers.xhtml
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/pay_me_to_blog_about_your_product_or_service.html
http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2005/08/11/blog-junkets/
http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2005/08/10/blogging-god/
http://www.tomrafteryit.net/reasons-for-developing-paid-blog-post-ethics/
http://www.cymfony.com/nws_innws_story.asp?docid=20050617_54641.html