MyBlogLog - Addictive

When I went to the Geek’s Dinner last Friday night (was great fun – geeks are cool!), I heard about this MyBlogLog thing.  It was touted as one of the ‘things to watch’ in 2007. Being a widget whore (I love those widget things, although I know they do slow  my blog down. I am going to delete some of them soon, promise), I decided to have a look at it.

 Well, now I am totally addicted to MyBlogLog. I have absolutely no idea at all how it works, but it is damn addictive.  People keep adding me as contacts, so I go and check them out, read their blog, sometimes add them as a contact, or join their communities.  

 I’ve probably spent at least five hours just surfing around the site, checking out various people, searching for communities etc. For someone who is VERY technically lazy and hasn’t a clue what the whole thing is about, that is pretty good going.

 Here is my MyBlogLog profile – do you have one?  Actually, can anyone explain to me how this thing works or what it is supposed to achieve?

Comments

[Suzie-Q.]

How was the Moussaka? Did you get the Hummus and grape leaves?
I usually order the lamb and then finish with some Baklava.

Ummmmmm, oh... you said Geek Dinner?
I thought you said GREEK Dinner!

[Michele]

I think it's just supposed to show you who is actually reading your blog since a lot of people (like me) never get around to commenting. It's pretty cool though! Even if I can't put it on my own blog .... heh

[Andre SC]

Hi Tertia

erg, ehrmmm, well there are many people much more qualified to explain it than myself, but I’ll give you my take as well…

Basically technology is making it easier and easier to connect stuff and there is a kind of arms race going on to build bigger and better networks of networks.

A few days after signing up to mybloglog you'll be informed that to enjoy the full features of myBlogLog you have to pay for it, or else you can keep running the free version but its not quite as kewl as the-real-thing.

I think at its core that's 'how it works', they provide a beefed-up statistics service, but are really sharp when it comes to figuring out what kind of stats bloggers really want, and realizing that much of the blogoshere is unadulterated vanity. capitalizing on that :-)

The fact that your (and my) site displays their widget enables them to count impression i.e. views of the avatar graphics.

Take all of this and ad the whole 'Web2.0' notion of collaborative content and it starts getting pretty interesting - if you're even a closet geek :-)

Basically its a bit like myspace for people who're not into myspace :-)

What it is supposed to achieve is pretty much the 'user-experience' you've described having i.e. facilitate what bloggers want to do in a way that builds their database, traffic and visibility which they then 'monetize' by 'up-selling' and chances are they'd be very interested to hear from companies interested in buying the whole shebang from them - as happened to other social networking sites like del.icio.us

Does this help or did you want to know more about the technical gory details ?

One SA blogger to visit for more informed views etc. on this stuff is Mike Stopforth... mikestopforth.com

PS. Thanx for visiting my site recently, of course without myboglog I wouldn’t have known, but now you’re a face, a person with a site in my head, in stead of just a part of an arbitrary number in my site’s statistics logs.

[spit]

just what I need, something else to steal my time

[Paul Jacobson]

I started using MyBlogLog in the last week or two and I am still figuring it all out. The handy thing for me is to see who is visiting my blogs and using MyBlogLog as another way to connect to people. I don't know how useful it is as a general social networking tool but the fact that so many people use it is enough of a reason to use it too.

[Monica]

Hmmm...very fascinating stuff. Does sort of remind me of myspace (though I'm soo not a fan of myspace and this sounds very cool). I wonder how it all works with a password-protected blog such as mine...hmm...probably doesn't. Oh well, I'll continue to live vicariously through your blog.

[Colleen]

Tertia, you're not kidding. It's addictive once you poke around and start figuring things out. I signed up for MyBlogLog ages ago and only remembered that today when I read your post. Since then I've spent hours looking around! Although I'm still not sure what it's all about either.

[margalit]

I have a MyBlogLog but I have no clue of how to use it. I do know that I keep getting mail telling me people have signed me up or have signed up for me, or whatever people do there, so I guess I have to go and check it out. I almost forgot I have it!

[Jessi]

Oh gee, thanks....you just got me interested and I'm officially signed up now, lol. I'm sure I'll love it...but do I really 'need' it? (Don't answer that question...I don't want to know...hehe)

[DD]

I tried to add the little "Who's Reading" to my sidebar via Widgets and the only thing it would show is the person it defaulted to in the Widget example. I think it's cool. Now if I could figure the f*cker out.