How to be Dead Wrong - On MyBlogLog
As a professional skeptic, I am often slow to react to what others see as ground breaking news.
For example, I just don't get MyBlogLog and said so over at Shoemoney, who had made a prediction about how great MyBlogLog would become.
I stated that:
"Re MyBlogLog:Colour me confused about MyBlogLog.
Why do people care about who visits a particular blog?
This seems to me as pointless, and hopefully as short lived, as large blogrolls.
Why I am wrong"?
Both Shoemoney and another poster responded as:
"I think a lot of people are confused. Its not really a blogroll as much as it is a community building tool. Also it shows you really cool stats like what is popular with your users on other sites and stuff like that. Its actaully very cool I recommend you play with it on your own site a bit." "Shoe is right on here. It takes people a while to "get" what MBL is about, but once they do, it's infectious. The community-building aspect makes it a kind of intentional Technorati: you can find blogs that are like yours, not based on linking, but on community membership. Very cool, and very easy to waste a lot of time surfing.I keep seeing MBL pop up on more and more blogs. It'll take off big in 2007".
I remained recalcitrant saying:
"I remain confused as to the useful benefits of MyBlogLog, at least for my site.The only value I can see would be this: if I could put together individuals who had similar search patterns at my site.
For example, if A and B both searched for "Coldstone Ice Cream", it would be useful for A and B to know that -assuming each had give their consent to share their search information.
But otherwise, I see no value in a general listing of visitors.
MyBlogLog is not providing community building tools.
MyBlogLog is like a vanity plate: I have more of a "community" than you.
But, no matter what I argue, it will in the end turn out to be an empirical fact about how well MyBlogLog performs."
That was a few short days ago. Today, there are a number of stories on Techeme about the purchase of MyBlogLog, for $10 million.
Well, it was nice being an unproved skeptic for two or three days. Still can $10 million Yahoo dollars get it right?
Technorati Tags: shoemoney, ground breaking news, i am wrong, mbl, skeptic, blogroll, blog


