Great post from Robert Scoble on the devolution of tech blogs into groupthink. I read his description of the top tier tech blogging/tech PR ecosphere with interest:
Tech blogging has become way too controlled by PR agents. You might not realize it, but the top blogs are contacted by PR folks dozens of times per day. This is why you’ll see 15 stories all appear on Techmeme at the same time. All with the same news. Only a few of whom slow down to ask “is this really useful.”
See, we’ve all learned that getting out in the first two minutes is worth a lot of traffic. Particularly if you are writing about an Apple news release.
Watch on Wednesday afternoon as the press, er bloggers, all file the same news story, albeit each with a different sensationalized headline. I’ve played that game and done it as well as anyone.
If you decide not to play that game then you stop getting invited to the coolest events. It’s how the game is played and it ensures that the bloggers all turn into a bunch of news junkies who love talking about the latest Yahoo rumors.
For what it’s worth, I’m glad Scobleizer will be getting back to its “look at this cool stuff!” roots. And I think every blogger can take an important lesson from his post: blog because you love what you write about, not because you need to prove your street cred by adding the umpteenth comment to the same story everyone else is already discussing.
No related posts.
{ 0 comments… add one now }