Blogging – Will it Merge with Social Networking Completely?
I woke up early and can’t go back to sleep, so I guess I’ll finish my thoughts on a very interesting subject- the possible blogging/social networking merger. Blogging and social networking certainly have similarities- they involve connecting people with each other in a large way. I’ve had this topic in a draft form for a couple days, but Fred Wilson’s “Adding Community to the Comments” post at A VC prompted me to finish my thoughts. The post talked about how mybloglog has enabled comment integration to your MBL community page so that a blogger can identify who is commenting on their blog. The MBL integration allows you to quickly go check that person’s own mbl community page and find out more about them. Check here to find out the sites that are already using the new functionality. In the comments of this post, Eric from MyBlogLog says the following-
“We are not trying to be the center of your community — that’s what your blog is for. We’re trying to find ways to bring you and your readers closer together. Step one is making everyone aware of each other; step two can be any of the three services you mention — discovery, personaliztion or communication.”
I can certainly see blogs becoming online profiles for MANY, many people. I’m certain this blog will become mine with time. Ridding myself of my myspace account completely would be great (I’ve got a long way to go to convert all myspace friends to blog friends). I would much rather have someone find my blog than look me up on myspace. I can’t remember the last time I had a meaningful dialogue on a social networking site. Blogs actually incite conversation on relevant, meaningful, & interesting topics (see this blog or this blog or this blog). Social networking sites are just a directory lookup in a sense. Yes, there are wall comments and private messages, but how often do you get past the “How’s life questions” only to hear back “Same ol, same ol” or “Great, how are you doing?” reponse? That brings me to the final point– Why not merge the best of both worlds? Directory lookup AND great, intelligent conversation. It seems mybloglog is well on its way to doing just that and I’m looking forward to the transition!
Eric, if you’re reading this- I would love to use MBL’s new functionality too!
Hiya,
I also work for MyBlogLog, and I’ll make sure Eric gets the request. In the meantime, we’d love it if you can install our Recent Readers widget. The code is linked from your view of http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/drewmeyers/
If you don’t want to, no worries, you’ll get the faces on your comments anyway.
With regard to specialized social networking, you could have offered up the profitable one as proof — Dogster. http://blog.dogster.com/2006/02/21/nice-little-niche-you-have-there/
Scott-
Thanks for the tip. I’m a big fan of what MBL is doing, so keep up the good work!
You are go for comment and profile goodness. Please let me know if you have any ideas on how we can keep improving the service. Cheers!
[...] I’ve touched on the subject before here and here, but an interesting post on Mike’s Points called “Blogging beyond your richest dreams” brings me to the subject again. I definitely find myself in his camp on a couple of points: [...]
[...] Time will tell whether this is true, but I think it will be. Myspace won’t be the most thriving social network in a couple years in my opinion. It’s only a matter of time before niche sites really become popular…or blogging just takes over by providing the best of social networking and blogging into one! [...]
[...] The post got my mind going- I THINK I now totally realize how excited the staff over at MyBlogLog must be about the future of their company. To me, there is HUGE potential here. I definitely see the day when MyBlogLog gets into blog advertising- in a MASSIVE way. They’d almost have to be crazy to not take advantage of their network of blogs using their widgets. Very smart of them to merge social networking with traditional blogging to help connect people. The more information MBL gathers from its users, the more valuable those eyeballs are to advertisers. And since people don’t like to sign up for more accounts (who doesn’t want everything all in one place), MBL could easily add an advertising network by adding an ad widget that bloggers could opt to put on their site. A win-win for everyone in my opinion…including advertisers who presently have no easy way to reach the very targeted audiences that blogs draw. [...]