Thursday, August 17, 2006

Blogosphere Wars

It seems that as the blogosphere grows, one of the themes that keeps fascinating bloggers is all about readership. Who has it, who does not, and how do you get more links. The blogosphere is buzzing about the latest post that takes a look at the great readership divide. In the words of Nicholas Carr:

"Once upon a time there was an island named Blogosphere, and at the very center of that island stood a great castle built of stone, and spreading out from that castle for miles in every direction was a vast settlement of peasants who lived in shacks fashioned of tin and cardboard and straw."

Looking in from the shacks, it is amusing to see the amount (and vitriol) of replies this comment has gotten (and here I am adding to the hype). The Guardian's Technology Blog has linked to some of the responses.

This is a topic close to my own interests, I have repeatedly stated that the blogosphere clearly displays the behaviour of power law distribution, as explained by this article. Blogs follow clear link-ratio behaviours, where older players are rewarded with more links, and it becomes increasingly difficult for new blogs to reach wider recognition because they inhabit the long-tail.

The way out of the freezing cold is to be linked by the top bloggers, but this happens rarely. I don't think this will be the last time we hear about this topic.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

THis is why I like having a (sekrit) "journal" as well as a blog - no such rivalries there, more or less. I have to say such things seem very boy's pissing contests to me :-)