Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

I just have to comment that in a recent TWiT episode the "hosts" really nailed blogging saying it was worthless and that 99% of blogs are crap. The reasoning was that blogs just "repurpose" the news. They said "its just 7 people" and then everyone else just repeats or links to the original 7.

Then they went on to the "next topic" in their technology podcast which is a discussion of the news - the already reported and being "repurposed" right there in the podcast news. Brilliant.

The TWiT crew also stated that the new blogsearch on Google appears to be an attempt by Google to get the blog content out of the regular search index because blogs "pollute" Google.

While I concur that there is a lot of linking to popular news stories online (and or discussion about them in podcasts), I dont think that is a revelation and I dont think blogs started it - or use it because they have nothing better to do (how about the AP and Reuters - where every other news source grabs content).

I think blogs have a lot more to offer than just repeated content. Normally there is commentary about the content along with the link or quote. The link/quote simply makes it easy to reference various sources of information about the story. While I would agree that many blogs are crap, and you have to discern, I WANT to have blogs in my general Google index search results. I want to know what the people are saying, the people are important.

I often find blogs very useful. Blogs summarize stories and not only repeat things but also sometimes add a perspective that is very close to or expertly knowledgeable about the story.

I would argue the same reason a roundtable discussion of current news events in a podcast can be potentially interesting can be applied to blogs.