When does a blog think it’s a blog, but really it isn’t? TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington and Zoli Erdos are pointing the finger at the Google Blog, asking if it truly is a blog. Why? Because they don’t allow comments.
Michael Arrington said it well:
“I believe the term “blog†means more than an online journal. I believe a blog is a conversation. People go to blogs to read AND write, not just consume. We’ve allowed comments here on TechCrunch since it started. At times, user comments can be painful to deal with. But they also keep the writer honest, and make the content vastly more interesting.”
“Should the definitions of ‘blog’ be revised to exclude journals that do not allow reader comments? Yeah, absolutely.”
Web managers and newspaper executives should take note. Newspaper folks sometimes think they’re hip to the Web by simply publishing or contributing to a blog without understanding that it is a much more interactive format.
Without the interactivity provided in the comments (and actually engaging readers), a blog becomes just another publishing platform, an easy way to produce regular pages with plain information on them. And there’s nothing really new or hip about that, is there?