Sonntag, 16. Februar 2003

That's all for now: A weblog-busy weekend comes to a close and I am now preparing for a few (hopefully interesting) days on the road. So talk amongst yourselves until I get back some time next week.

Google-move reviewed: Google buying Pyra is sure to shake up the weblog world in the near future. Google is a well-known and respected brand now and so a GoogleBlogs brand (or whatever they decide to call it) is sure to attract a lot of new webloggers and switchers ("I used to be a Radio weblogger - but now I've switched to GoogleBlog" - or something similar). Something easy to imagine is some form of Google-search-box being automatically added to your GoogleBlog. That search will then search other weblogs in the Google-verse for related topics etc. Also addititions like "more like this from GoogleGroups" are a no-brainer. So all in all a perfect tie-in. Many people (myself included) turn to weblogs as alternate sources of up to the minute information - news. Google can tap into this and provide these sources in addition to their GoogleNews. Present a news piece of the wire of say AP and then provide links to weblogs currently commenting or reporting the same piece. Other weblog-players are sure to have some busy days ahead - rethinking strategies and looking for strategic partners.

It's never black or white: Instapundit has a part of Tony Blair's speech and reading it shows that "no war" may also not be the answer in the end. There has to be a middle way - and we have to find it.

Meltdown: None of the radio.userland.com/ weblogs (including my own) seem to be reachable - as is www.weblogs.com. What gives? Update: Seems to be ok now.

Audio blogging: Also at the Blogosphere event in LA (why are these things always on the other side of the planet?) Audblog was announced. The service will allow you to ring in via phone and then leave a blog entry which is linked into your weblog as an mp3 file. Check here for an example weblog that uses the service. As I see it, this way of blogging has a major drawback when compared to normal weblogging and even photo-blogging. When I select the weblog to "read" I can only see an icon representing an audio-entry. I have to download the file in a seperate step to hear it. This breaks up the flow - or experience - of reading the weblog.

Weblogs get political: Apart from commenting on some of the stuff I've read (the mind boggles that some people really should think that) - here's one weblog you should read. Especially if you're American.

Google goes blogging: The big news this morning is Google buying Pyra (the makers of blogger). This is news. Of course I was expecting the tip-off from our man in Google-land - but he didn't come through. Lots of comments flying around. I got the pointer from Ben. Off to read more and then back with some thoughts of my own.