UPDATED: Six Apart NOT Relaunching Blogs.com As Index of the Blogosphere
Update: In the frenzy to cover this breaking story, we had high hopes for a Six Apart announcement that emerged today. After seeing the soon to be relaunched Blogs.com site, our hopes were dashed. See the update to the end of this post for a screenshot and reaction.
Blogs.com sounds like a great URL, right? All these years it's just been used to sell Typepad blogging software, but this weekend SixApart will relaunch the site as a comprehensive directory of blogs around the web, organized by category.
We hope that it will include an automated and well organized list of top blogs in a wide variety of sectors, similar to what Technorati tried to do with its blog directory before the company blew up. Earlier this year we wrote about different ways to find top blogs in any niche and though all of those solutions were imperfect, Blogs.com could prove invaluable if it really nails it.
Why This is Important
From tech to medicine to real estate to art to the sciences, an easy way to identify the most respected blogs in a niche vertical is a huge time saver and valuable resource for everyone.
Even though Technorati has nearly fallen apart in its ability to fill this need, it has still been one of the most valuable services that company provides. After blogsearch got taken over by Google Blogsearch and the excellent Ask.com blogsearch, Blogs.com could well be the last nail in the Technorati coffin. They may slide now into the background as a 3rd rate ad sales network.
To be fair, we're calling Blogs.com a Technorati killer without having seen it yet (see why below) but the fact is we just hope Blogs.com does a much better job than Technorati is right now in indexing top blogs by topic.
What's Inside
There are more than 2 million Typepad blogs already hosted on blogs.com, but the new site will feature among other things "favorites" lists from CEOs and other web celebrities. That will be little more than a curiosity. SixApart is one of the most innovative technology providers online, though they rarely get credit for it. We have high hopes for Blogs.com.
Unfortunately, we haven't seen the site yet. We'll have a briefing any minute now and will update this post with details and screenshots. The site was supposed to launch on Monday, but the press embargo was broken, ironically, by a member of the mainstream media. It was the second embargo broken in a week for the biggest blogging software company in the world, SixApart. Further proof that members of the blogging community can't trust mainstream media! (We say this in jest because that's what mainstream media says about us bloggers all the time.)
Will Blogs.com deliver? Check back here later this afternoon for a more detailed preview.
Update: Blogs.com Not What We Expected, Hoped For
We just got a demo of the site and it's not what we hoped for at all. It's a very tame collection of "top 10" lists on selected topics. The company calls it a "clean, well lit place" to find content. Thankfully it won't just be limited to blogs on Six Apart platforms.
It's like Top Ten Sources but Six Apart says it will be more successful because they have more experience with blogs. We like Top Ten Sources for what it is, but we were hoping that as a long time technology innovator Six Apart would offer some technology that would fill a widespread need for blog discovery.
Blogs aren't scary any more. As we wrote earlier today, they have been widely adopted by many of the biggest businesses in the world. Safely aggregating selected content in a handful of niches is something everyone is doing now - we talked to a mainstream reporter just yesterday about why on earth everyone seems to be doing it these days.
Six Apart says they never intended Blogs.com to be a technology site as opposed to a media site and that they will expand their categories in time.
That's ok, but it's no big deal, and we had high hopes. With all of its direct traffic with a URL like blogs.com, this site is going to be little more than a classy landing page to throw ads up on. It will probably be a decent traffic driver for the chosen blogs, but our dream of a thorough, well organized topical index driven by a clear, relatively objective criteria and technology has been deferred for other companies to fulfill. That's a real shame.
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thats really a great news...
I hope it will be better than Technorati and more organized.
Interesting. I'm always up for a better way to find relevant top blogs. The CEO and web celebs "favorites" lists sounds like a silly novelty, but people are curious so I'm sure it will be of interest to some.
Look forward to learning more after your briefing. Plz, tweet when updated. Thanks marshallk.
:)
"we were hoping that as a long time technology innovator Six Apart would offer some technology that would fill a widespread need"
You obviously forgot that they are a media/advertising company now. IMO this obviously reflects that change. Too bad because I agree that someone needs to fill the void Technorati left.
It seems like all the great online technology companies eventually become media companies.
Hey Marshall, thanks for writing up the launch.
First, I have to mention, what they say about the tech news cycle moving quickly is right -- We went all the way from being praised to getting the backlash of expectations all in the span of one post! :)
Here's the good news: Blogs.com is going to be an awesome site, a great way to find new blogs. I hear what you're saying about "blogs aren't scary anymore", but you know, at Six Apart we're the blogging company. We have an obligation, more than anybody else, to help people discover great blogs. That's just something we should do as a company founded by bloggers and for bloggers.
That aside, I think it's a classic move for all of us who are geeks to evaluate new things based on the technology. I remember back when I started blogging nine years ago, Blogger.com launched and people said "oh, you could do that in FTP and notepad!" And then podcasting came along, and people said "well, sure, but you could distribute media files already." YouTube came along, and people said "how is that any different than RealPlayer?" These days, Twitter is dinged for being "just a little text box".
The thing is, making it radically easier for people to do common tasks *is* innovation in technology. It's as important as making things that are interesting from a computer science standpoint. Technorati, if it has failed (I can't judge that), hasn't failed because of technology. And an imperfect technology infrastructure hasn't kept Twitter from succeeding.
Instead, what wins is what gives people connections, and what provides them with a meaningful experience. Those of us who've been around long enough remember the amazing magic of discovering something new, something we'd never seen before, every time we went out on the web. I had that experience just a few weeks ago when Alan Taylor, whom I'd known online for years, used Movable Type to make The Big Picture for the Boston Globe's site. The NY Times company has launched *tons* of blogs, but this one's immediately become their best (and likely their most popular) because it was something we hadn't seen before.
If I weren't in the loop in geek blogger circles, how would I have found it, since I don't live in Boston?
I could give you a million more examples, but I'll spare you. And of course, Blogs.com is powered by the new Movable Type Pro release, so there is a whole arsenal of interesting community features we can roll out, once real people are in there reading and contributing and helping shape the site's evolution. (My personal wishlist is for OPML files or something like that, but who knows which way it'll go?)
But for me, I remember one of the most amazing moments I ever had on the web. It was one of the first times I logged into a machine at the University of Maryland (sometime in late ~1994?) and I visited akebono.stanford.edu, which I found in the bookmarks of the browser I was using. What I got was a hand-edited directory of mostly personal sites, organized by topic. Each was endlessly fascinating. And you know, the whole thing was probably pretty low-tech. That didn't keep it from being a useful and valuable resource for me, and it was clear it was made by people who loved the web.
So, we'll see where it goes. My take is, people shouldn't judge by a screenshot or by the mercurial whims of those of us who kiss and dismiss new sites by the dozen every day. We should all look at it when it launches, by all means offer suggestions or criticisms of how it can improve, and most importantly judge the site by the blogs it helps us discover.
Oh, and I have to totally agree with one part of your assessment: SixApart is one of the most innovative technology providers online, though they rarely get credit for it. We have high hopes for Blogs.com.
Well that's sucky. What a disappointment. The void remains, but hopefully some startup will come along to fill it.
@Tac Yep, a lot of online tech companies evolve into a media companies. I suppose that's due to the reality that eventually companies do need to make money and people don't want to pay for anything these days because we want it all for free.
Google is the best at finding obscure but relevant web pages, which is the same core problem with blog-search.
Technorati still has value though, because as far as I know, it is the only site that shows who is linking whom (like automatic trackbacks) and has an API to get that info. Very useful to bloggers, but maybe not to blog readers.
Hi. This is Scott, one of the co-founders of Regator.com. When Regator launched last week, we were featured on ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, and TechCrunch, among others, and got resoundingly positive reviews. Many of the positive comments were a result of us being exactly what you asked for in this post: "a thorough, well organized topical index driven by a clear, relatively objective criteria and technology." Blogs.com may not be doing what you're looking for, but it's not true that your hopes of a site that does all of this need to be deferred.
Regator is up and running with well over 3,000 hand-picked blogs in nearly 500 categories, with more added every day. We give our users (both tech geek and non-tech geek) the tools they need to find quality content on their favorite topics.
We hope you'll stop in to take a look because we're confident that you'll find just what you're looking for.
Cheers.
I'm going to check out Regator, thanks for the comment, Scott.
We are certainly in need of something better than technorati, sounds like SixApart have dropped the ball from what you say, but I will wait and see what they are doing.
I would like to point out that we are fav.or.it are doing the most innovation compare with any of them.
* Categorized content
* Comment aggregation - so people can see where people are talking, not just what the blog posts are saying - http://fav.or.it/comments
* Attention tracking - our 'most popular' is based upon the time people spending looking at articles
* Innovative Tag Page / compare - http://fav.or.it/tag/barack_obama or http://technorati.com/tag/barack+obama
* Identity management - 14 identity types that can be signed in via (facebook + myspace coming soon)
And much much more...
thanks
This is a great example of the downside of scoop mad blogger who are more concerned with getting it first than right.
If a real journalist had made such a retraction in a newpaper they might have lost their job. You just lost some of my trust.
There are different ways to slice and dice (segment) the blogsphere. A good start is content category and blog's objectives (e.g. politics, corporate, SAHM, founders, VC). It is hard to believe that till this day there is no single service that answers few basic requirements:
1. Order blogs per each category by authority (borrowed from Technorati)
2. Order bloggers per each category by authority (some bloggers owns multiple blogs and some blogs has multiple blog writers).
3. Order blog posts per each category by reactions
This will be a great tool for both the businesses and consumers.
Something else that will be nice to see is a list of the most significant blog posts from all times per category (measured by reactions, comments, maybe twits etc...).
Keren
Marshall, I just got back from vacation, so thanks for the heads-up that Technorati “blew up” and has “fallen apart” while I was offline for a few days. Does that mean I don’t have to go into the office this morning? ;-) Seriously, I’d like to invite you for an update, as it seems the rumors of Technorati’s demise are greatly exaggerated, and a respected commentator like ReadWriteWeb should be have the latest info. While the company has certainly had issues in the past – most start-ups do – we are actually doing quite well these days (at least we were before I went on vacation!). Technorati.com continues to serve about 10 million visitors a month, and our ad network Technorati Media is off to a fine start in its own right. If you’d like, I’d be more than happy to give you the update – let me know. Lastly, a quick congrats to Six Apart on the launch of Blogs.com – nice work!