Yahoo Experimenting with Blogs?

Tee Emm writes "Sven Latham reports on his Yet Another Blog that Yahoo is (probably) experimenting with its blog services for its general users. The test bench is in Korea and may be followed by an international service on yahoo.com. On the main Yahoo site, blogs.yahoo.com as well as blog.yahoo.com both are active though they take you to yahoo groups interface."

Comments

How many blogs do you need?

[w.p.richardson]

Asked as I type this into a blog site...

The irony is palpable.

IM Blogs

[rf0]

Now what would be cool is if they could intergrate Yahoo IM so you could blog from your IM window. OF course just being careful that your talk with FitGirl 18/f/US (who is actually FatBloke 37/m/US) isn;t automatically logged :)

Rus

Re:IM Blogs

[hswerdfe]

Now what would be cool is if they could intergrate Yahoo IM so you could blog from your IM window

hey wow that is a cool idea.
but why not try to intigrate it into jabber.
you know have some server run a translater from jabber client to web-log.
that would be all kinds of fun.

Re:IM Blogs

[Gabriel Radic]

This works well already with MSN and weblog.ro.

The site is in Romanian only :o)

Re:IM Blogs

[davidhan]

Motime is a blog platform that tries to integrate IM'ing with blogging. It actually uses Jabber technology and gives you a web Jabber client (in Java I guess). I've also heard of AIM bots out there that can post to a blog, or keep you notified of when blogs update

Re:IM Blogs

[rkz]

I believe you mean this?

Not first post, first blog.

[51M02]

I would be interested in knowing which was the first blog system site ever created. My guess would be LiveJournal.com but I won't be sure. Does someone has a clue?

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[stry_cat]

I would be interested in knowing which was the first blog system site ever created. My guess would be LiveJournal.com but I won't be sure. Does someone has a clue?

Well I don't have a clue, but my guess would be blogger.com.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[happystink]

Pitas.com was, it's mentioned in Rebecca Blood's history of weblogs.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think www.blogger.com is even older. Blogger was what make blogging mainstream.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[govtcheez]

People blogged about sandwiches? Jesus, the Internet's been worthless since its inception, apparently.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[dema]

According to an item in the LJ FAQ, LJ was started sometime in March 1999 while blogger.com says it was launched in August 1999. Those are the two older ones I can think of and if they really are the two oldest it appears that LJ beat blogger to the punch.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[51M02]

As written on the LJ FAQ, LiveJournal started on March 1999, beating up Pitas.com which started not until July 1999 as Rebecca Blood stated in her "History of weblogs".

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[f2professa]

Scripting News was most probably the first true blog, with Userland Frontier as the backend system [Aretha!]. Weblogs.com came shortly after but, I don't see an exact date. But I do believe it pre-dated Blogger and Pitas.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is something will soon appear in our history books no doubt.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[happystink]

Interesting, didn't know that. I am pretty sure I made pitas page in May 1999, so maybe that history is wrong, but good to know. One thing I do know for sure as someone who was involved in weblogs back then, pitas was definitely the first service anyone knew about. LJ exploded around 2001 or so and got really big, but back in 1999 the choices were Pitas (tons of users right away, mostly teens) and Scripting.com (but noone really understoodf how that worked) and then later, groksoup appeared (but noone used it and it's gone) and then blogger, which became the hugest one.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[mirko]

Everything, Everything2 ancestor, offered blog facilities before 1999.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[Shamashmuddamiq]

"Blogging" is as old as the internet. It hasn't always been called "blogging" (thank Jebus!), but it's always been around. I remember blogging on my own website back in 1996, until I realized that it was a pretty stupid thing to do. If you think people would bother to read your blog, then you're either really famous (and you're trying to get your fans out of your face) or you're flattering yourself.

Re:Not first post, first blog.

[golgotha007]

If you think people would bother to read your blog, then you're either really famous (and you're trying to get your fans out of your face) or you're flattering yourself.

..or you want your friends or family to see what you've been doing if you live on the other side of the world. ..or you want to keep a journal of your life but don't want to carry around a book and pencil. you can get online anywhere, even on vacation.

i really don't care for all the online journals i've seen; they either had too much of one feature or not enough of another, so i decided to write my own.
it's a nice and easy format with a great admin interface for edits, a clickable calendar and image uploading.

if you're interested in obtaining a copy, you can email me spamdot@ventura.nu

Just what we need.

[slusich]

Another place for people no one cares about to post rants no one will ever read. Isn't there enough of this on the net already?

Re:Just what we need.

[kermitron]

On the upside; ever since my friends all got blogs, they've stopped sending me chain emails from 1791 that will give me good luck if I forward them to 15 other people within sixty seconds.

There might be a downside I don't see.

Re:Just what we need.

[Gherald]

> Why not put EVERYTHING that people want to use in one spot?

Does anyone _want_ yahoo ads?

Re:Just what we need.

[CGP314]

Just what we need Another place for people no one cares about to post rants no one will ever read. Isn't there enough of this on the net already?

Well that's the tradeoff on the net. Everyone has the ability to publish their thoughts, but it turns out not everyone's thoughts make a good read. That's why search engines exist: to help you filter out the crap.

Re:Just what we need.

[sootman]

Evidently, not quite. There will be "enough" when AOL and MSN and Yahoo! and everyone else offer them and every person has (at least) one. Same as anything else: companies constantly feel the need to make barriers to entry lower and lower until everyone who could possibley want one, has one.

Re:Just what we need.

[govtcheez]

No kidding. We've already got Slashdot. Anything else like this'll be redundant.

Re:Just what we need.

[Slack3r78]

The problem is, the crap's become so prevalent that it's getting hard to filter it out. I believe Google finally changed their algorithm to lower the ranking of blog sites in searches, but I know that I often ran into times where the only results I could get for several pages of results were stupid blogs that had nothing to do with what I wanted.

I have no problem with the blogs themselves, it's just that they've hit such a critical mass that they interfere with me getting things done at times that annoys me.

Re:Just what we need.

[kermitron]

And then some jerk can introduce a new internet fad for everyone to complain about until it becomes standard. To be honest, I can still rmemeber when I refused to install an IM program because I didn't see the use for it. Of course I still consider ICQ and MSN to be the enemy of actual communication. We have all these additional means with which to tell other people what we're thinking, how we feel, what we're doing. If you have a webcam you can let them watch you do it as well (and depending on your personal dignity - make money from it). All this and we're left with so little to actually talk about. There are only so many days in a row you can see someone come online and ask them how they're oding before one of you goes insane.

Re:Just what we need.

[kermitron]

It almost makes having made the typo worth it.

Re:Just what we need.

[Suidae]

Of course what many people fail to realize is that a large number of (if not most) bloggers don't care if they aren't popular. The blog is there for people who ARE interested, friends and relatives mostly, to know whats up with the blogger, without him having to send possibly unwanted email around, ala the yearly newsletters from family that so many of us love to hate.

Never seen that before.

[CGP314]

The story on slashdot was longer than the story it linked to.

Re:Never seen that before.

[1nsane0ne]

So your saying for once the ADD slashdot crowd should have read the article? Now you ask too much, way too much. What's next, thinking before we post and using spell checkers?

Re:Never seen that before.

[oobar]

And I object to the word "story" used to describe either.

What do we have here? Someone noticed that blogs.yahoo.com redirects to groups.google.com. There's also a link to a korean yahoo site that makes no sense to me whatsoever. How is this a story? Why was this accepted? It makes no sense. I would say that this submission is pure speculation but I don't want to even go that far.

Blog...

[LordYUK]

I've always thought the word "Blog" sounded like something you heaved up...

"Whats wrong with Bill today, is he sick?"

"Yeah, he's at home, blogging up his guts."

"Oh, I hate it when I blog."

or

"OH MY GOD PULL OVER I AM GOING TO BLOG!!" ::sound of blog hitting ground::

"BLOG!! BLOG BLOG!!! ugh, I dont feel well..."

Re:Blog...

[happystink]

Totally, I think originally the word stood for "butt log"

Re:Blog...

[Ominous Coward]

sadly, there was a hole in the language available for "Blog" to fill, as a verb. "writing a journal entry" is too long for these buzz-word filled days. "journalling" doesn't sound right, and it's still too many syllables. "blogging" is short, and to the point.

That said, I hate the word, and it's also pretty inaccurate, as a weblog (the originator of the word 'blog) is a site like Slashdot, not a personal web journal.

Re:Blog...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's all good though, this description is how I feel about most blogs.

Re:Blog...

[Zorikin]

How about ... log?

Re:Blog...

[Ominous Coward]

ignores the "web", or "internet" part of the action, as well as has a different connotation. "Log" to me sounds too official, like an error log, or a ship's log for a naval cruiser. Most "blogs" are actually journals, as they're not actually logging events. But then we get back to my original point about the words.

For better or worse (worse, I think), we're stuck with "blog". It's been coined, people use it, it's in the lexicon. Hopefully it'll pass quickly, just like the outrageously stupid "information superhighway".

Re:Blog...

[Suidae]

And of course, 'logging' already has a pretty clearly defined usage. Unless you are planning on going to cut some trees, 'logging' probably isn't the word you want to use with great aunt Edna.

Re:Blog...

[Dave Walker]

Unless, of course, you actually know that 'logging' has more than one meaning...

Function: verb Inflected Form(s): logged; logging Date: 1699 transitive senses 1 a : to cut (trees) for lumber b : to clear (land) of trees in lumbering -- often used with off

2 : to make a note or record of : enter details of or about in a log

3 a : to move (an indicated distance) or attain (an indicated speed) as noted in a log b (1) : to sail a ship or fly an airplane for (an indicated distance or period of time) (2) : to have (an indicated record) to one's credit : ACHIEVE

KR.

[CGP314]

Yahoo Korea looks like a lot more fun than regular yahoo. It all ani-ma-fa-kated.

Re:KR.

[JofCoRe]

It's funny how yahoo korea looks strikingly similar to all that korean spam I used to get. Those were fun... couldn't figure out what they were trying to sell me, or how to unsubscribe :)

Re:KR.

[Moth7]

So you couldn't figure out where the *block* button was then either? ;)

Re:KR.

[JofCoRe]

Actually, it got to be kind of a fun thing around the office to see what strange things the korean spam would be trying to sell me each day, so I didn't mind them that much :) Now I don't use that email anymore (moved on from that company), so I don't get to "guess what the korean spam is selling" anymore :(

Re:KR.

[chenGOD]

I live in Korea and never get Korean spam.

If you're a foreigner who can read Korean, forget about signing up for ths blog, since you need a Korean ID number

I don't know about this...

[Capt_Troy]

There's something about a blog that is entirely created and maintained by the blogger. I mean, would any of us really read wil wheaton's site if he just kept it at yahoo?

Nothing against yahoo or anything. It's great for people who don't have the resources or knowledge to maintain such a thing, but I doubt I'll be perusing the blogs on yahoo any time soon. Would you?

t.

Re:I don't know about this...

[m00nun1t]

Just like no one would use an OS where you didn't have to compile the kernel yourself?

Blogging is still pretty niche and dominated by techie talk, and a LOT of meta-blogging. Something like this, the AOL blogging service and presumably MSN blogs (was in job ads a few months ago) will bring blogging to the masses, for better or worse.

Re:I don't know about this...

[gricholson75]

I mean, would any of us really read wil wheaton's site if he just kept it at yahoo?

I don't read Wil Wheaton's site anyway.

Re:I don't know about this...

[dsmoses]

>I mean, would any of us really read wil wheaton's site if he just kept it at yahoo?

I would be willing to bet that more people outside of /. would read it then.

Really, how many /. people use AOL, how many /. people think they can make money helping out our Nigerian friends. Yet these things still happen, and make money on them. /. users are the minority and I doubt that Yahoo is really considering the /. crowd as their target demographic.

AOL annouced earlier this summer that they were going to set up the ability for their users to run blogs, so now Yahoo has to do it as well.

Re:I don't know about this...

[Capt_Troy]

I would be willing to bet that more people outside of /. would read it then.

Perhaps that's true. We'll find out soon enough I guess. It should be interesting.

T.

Re:I don't know about this...

[gl4ss]

there's dozens of people have have had the intrest and skills to build a blogging system themselfs, but lack the intrest to write actual content into it. kind like my sort of blog i did, i have like 3 month peroids without writing anything there, not that anyone reads it anyways but i've regarded it more as a personal diary i can look at myself(and maybe, just maybe manage to keep the entries for 20 years as then it would be pretty cool).

Re:I don't know about this...

[multimed]

Blogging is still pretty niche and dominated by techie talk, and a LOT of meta-blogging.

Thats kinda funny--my personal experience is the exact opposite. Of my friends/acquaintances who blog, they are very much not technically oriented--and none of my friends friends who are into computers & technology blog. Obviously too small of a sample size for any real meaning. My friends who blog are bigger into keeping in touch with their friends and might even write actual letters to their friends were it not for blogging/email. Meanwhile my programmer friends aren't exactly into the keeping in touch thing regardless of the medium.

Might have something to do with a desire to compile the kernel taking up their time.

When is a story not a story?

[kiwiokie]

Somehow this article seems more like a "first!" post than a news story. The actual post on yetanotherblog.com is no longer than the story teaser that Slashdot has posted. And the links (as reported) don't actually go anywhere particularly interesting.

Remember: patience is a virtue.

August 25, 2003

[PetoskeyGuy]

Spent all day reading slashdot again. I posted a comment and it never even got any points. Fark had an awesome story about a guy doing something dumb. I finally have my very own blog so I can share my thoughts with the world.

August 26, 2003
Spent all day reading slashdot again. That Microsoft Sux.

August 27, 2003
Spent all day reading slashdot again. I hate SCO, they suck.

August 28, 2003
Spent all day reading slashdot again. Just upgraded to Windows XP. It sucks.

Let's count

[mrpuffypants]

So now we've got:

• Blogger-Powered by Google
• Typepad-From those that brought you MovableType
• Slashdot Journals-From those that brought you misspeeled dupes
• Typepad
• AOL Journals-From those that brought you cybersex
• Yahoo! Journals-From those that brought you the dotcom bubble

...All so that we can hear about a 14 year old and her first day of school and how "impossible" Jr. High is. Wonder-fucking-full.

Re:Let's count

[Effugas]

You don't remember being 14, do you :-)

--Dan

Re:Let's count

[Anonymous Coward]

You know what I love, people who go on about how web journals are shit, and worthless. But then keep one (check out the homepage)

Re:Let's count

[Call Me Black Cloud]

I agree. It's much more interesting to read the thoughts of a 19 year old college student with his own domain name (with the name being swiped from MST3K).

Re:Let's count

[110010001000]

Even funnier: here is his first story headline: "Google rawks!" :-)) How very 14 year old of him. As a 14 year old (almost) I am offended.

Re:Let's count

[Halloween Jack]

Cream rises to the top of the bottle, sunshine. If your blog is any better than the average 14 y.o. junior high student's, folks will read it; otherwise, you're just another in a long line of people who thought that they should have been the last person to be admitted to the IntarWeb.

So many 'interesting' people

[Willow_mt]

This is just another addition to the idea "I want to be reachable everywhere and I want to let everyone know how interesting I am".
Most people just don't see the point of how this makes them less interesting.

That said, let's make another entry in my journal ;)

Re:So many 'interesting' people

[TheSync]

I think blogs can communicate the thoughts that people are having that might otherwise go uncommunicated to others. While there are plenty of thoughts that are pretty much worthless, no doubt looking through enough blogs one will find insights into technology, philosophy, humanity, politics, and psychology.

Of course, a lot of the psychology is that people are nuts!

Wheres Aol?

[OfficerNoGun]

I don't really see this doing anything to the blog world. If aol did one (or partnered with someone) It could be really usefull. Let it replace buddy profiles, have a little button on AIM to post a blog, Have a read my blog button in an AIM window. Hold the blogs at central server, but serve them locally (the only person who would hit there server would be the user, everyone else would read the blog off of the users computer, like the profiles are now). Im not really saying this will be usefull in anyway to the internet at large, but I't would let let blogs grow.

Re:Wheres Aol?

[Moth7]

1. Potential nuking of dial-ups o_0 2. How does this help when we have all reached enlightenment and are running Jabber clients on *nix?

Re:Wheres Aol?

[bgp4]

I think this is a "natural" fit for many companies... hotmail blogs, AOL blogs, fark blogs, /. blogs (oh wait)... However, how much is too much?

I mean, we went through a whole pile of free mail places, many of whom have imploded. Now free blogs are popping up everywhere and the big boys are taking notice.

And I think there's a lot of room for blog integration. Sure, you could integrate it with your IM client, but why stop there. Integrate it with the E911 system so we can know where you are at all times. Activate the mic on your phone so we can hear all your conversations. Make your blog your voluntary big brother portal. Homeland Security will love that.

I guess at the end of the day, it's how self important you want to feel.

pardon the rant

No...

[Moth7]

Because that results in bloatware. Does everyone want the Microsoft Personal Webserver, the Character Map, Clipboard viewer and... o_0 ... MSN explorer... *Is off to clear his so called OS components* [/Offtopic Anti-MS rant]

Actual Story

[GeorgeH]

The article neglected to include the permalink to the story.

On a related tangent, how long before our schools start teaching kids how to write in hypertext? I would love for MLA to cover rules like "the linked resource should be relevant to the words that are used to link to it," "never include punctuation in hyperlinks," or "you will die a fiery death if you link the word 'here' to a resource."

Re:Actual Story

[Moth7]

Bring on the lessons in hypertext! Maybe it will stop my "savvy" friends from using deprecated tags and trying to "compile" HTML in the VB6 IDE o_0

Re:Actual Story

[DASHSL0T]

You can find good hypertext rules here.

Re:Actual Story

[GeorgeH]

Have them check out Designing with Web Standards by Jeff Zeldman. It goes into the whys and hows of writing valid XHTML. And if any of your friends are designers who think that CSS can't make good designs point them to the CSS Zen Garden.

Re:Actual Story

[Moth7]

If I have any friends that know what CSS is then I'll give them that URL ;)

Re:Actual Story

[Slack3r78]

Another great site demonstrating what CSS is capable of is Eric Meyers' CSS Edge. There are a few examples that refuse to work in IE because IE's CSS support sucks, but even for those, Eric usually shows a way to hack it to get IE working at least semi-properly. He's also very much a promoter of standards, so everything on the site is W3C validated CSS. Some very cool stuff.

Re:Actual Story

[maxume]

Yay, somebody needed to do that.

Does anyone still use Yahoo!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thought not. Better (less ad-infested) services can be found with competitors. They've stamped the only jewel in their crown, eGroups (now Yahoo! Groups) right into the ground - people only use it now because it's such a pain to migrate a mailing list elsewahere. If this blogging service is as bad as Yahoo! Groups is now, I can't see it taking off (I personally, will be sticking with my Slashdot Journal).

Re:Does anyone still use Yahoo!?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't mind the Yahoo company and their sites. They keep all seem to be pretty userfriendly and they use HTML they way it should be used. Of all the giant companies doign websites they are only bested by Google IMHO.

Re:Does anyone still use Yahoo!?

[Fammy2000]

I won't write in my Slashdot Journal because people will just mod it down. (-1, Offtopic)

Re:Does anyone still use Yahoo!?

[hswerdfe]

I still use maps.yahoo.com
in my opinion its still the best map finder on the web.
Fuck mapquest

Re:Does anyone still use Yahoo!?

[admbws]

Not at all. Your journal is yours, you can write just about anything you like in it. Take a look at what sort of random stuff has been posted recently! In fact, I'm sure it would be preferable to write your random thoughts there instead of posting them offtopic in a story! This FAQ answer should ease your concerns.

Re:Does anyone still use Yahoo!?

[Fammy2000]

I was trying to be funny. Apparently I'm not. =)

Thanks for the help anyway. I've often debated: start my own blog, or use Journal. Journal looks nerdier, so that might win.

Re:Does anyone still use Yahoo!?

[WoTG]

I'm still using their web email, though I'm trying to move away from it. I actually got the email address with Geocities, a long time ago... then I got grandfathered into a Yahoo email account with a 6MB mailbox =).

I also use their financial tools at finance.yahoo.com. There are probably other services, but Yahoo's works fine and doesn't have excessive ads. Not sure if they have pop-ups or not, thanks to Moz.

I never use their search or directory anymore though.

Why?

[Jeremy Erwin]

Suppose Yahoo starts hosting blogs.
In three months, it will become popular.
In four months, it will become popular with "adults."
In five months, Yahoo Blogs will become a premiere conduit for erotic content.
In six months, Yahoo Blogs will force the reader to view a full screen ad before reading content
In seven months, Yahoo Blogs will start imposing bandwidth caps.
In eight months, readers of such blogs will be denied access to archives.

Yes it is true

[acehole]

I know the sys admin for yahoo, they've been working on a blog system since early this year. As with everything yahoo does, Korea is where they test it.

Korea is actually thier biggest money maker too, there is a avatar system that they have access to and people pay to buy virtual clothes and other such things for their own personal avatar. They make a fortune out of it, it's crazy.

But yeah... yahoo is definitely get a blog system.

Re:Yes it is true

[dan dan the dna man]

you know the sysadmin for Yahoo? He must be a pretty busy guy.. I wouldn't want to manage all that by myself ;)

Re:Yes it is true

[kermitron]

Korea seems to be massive for a lot of things internet related, and faster adapting too, so it's no shock that they'd test it there.

For example, you take a look at the highest trafficked sites. Not surprisingly, the top sites are yahoo and MSN... but somewhere around #3 you get a Korean site and from there on down you get a pretty solid representation between sites that are primarily American, Korean and Japanese.

Re:Yes it is true

[chenGOD]

Numbers 3,4 and 10 are Korean. Although I'e never heard of number 10 before...heh, look at that: msn korea is number 47. That's odd, considering that South Korea is probably 95% Windows based.

The horror

[KU_Fletch]

Great, now I'm going to have to ignore a few thousand more blogs about how teenagers hate their parents and shut-ins hate society.

deltree c:\ /y should sort it out

[DrSkwid]

gosh, windows is bloated you say

why not add some comments to your slashdot journal about which options you removed, I'm sure we'd all be fascinated.

Content == King

[RobotRunAmok]

Having the resources or knowledge to maintain a blog does not make what you have to write in the blog any more worth reading than what the Yahoo-ites have to say. Sadly, many of the technically-savvy have failed to realize this.

The truth of the matter is, if what you say is worth reading on a regular, or even daily basis, someone will step in and provide you with the resources to maintain your blog, thereby freeing you up to focus on your writing. These resource-providers are called publishers. Whether or not the blog-writer has a publisher is a good litmus test for whether I will devote any of my time reading what he writes.

As for keeping up with friends' activities: we use the telephone. Terribly Old School that way.

It's like graphic design. The personal computer programs that have made it cheap and easy for someone to do the *work* of a designer do not magically transform everyone *into* a designer.

Re:Content == King

[Capt_Troy]

I would mod this as "insightful" if I could. I've neglected the content part of the equation. Thanks!

So a yahoo blog with good content is surly better than a self built blog with no/bad content.

The only problem with the yahoo stuff is that you won't (probably) find a person's blog by looking for it on google (or any other search engine besides yahoo). that's okay for the most part, but in an age when everyone uses google, you blog about something and google users will see it.

Re:Content == King

[Slack3r78]

Dear god, NOT being on google would about the best thing that could possibly happen. The absolute last thing I want are more blogs I don't care about clogging up my search results whnen I'm actually trying to get something done. If people want to share their journals, let them link people they actually know and might have an inkling of interest to it - not throw it in the face of people that don't really give a shit anyway.

Re:Content == King

[ChrisTower]

Not all good writers are actively trying to be published (in print). You should try reading the writers you enjoy, not just the ones publishing companies have decided may be profitable. Litmus is a lie.

Re:Content == King

[teamhasnoi]

That's like saying that the only music worth listening to is distributed by a label. Yes, there is alot of crap out there, but don't assume that it is if it's not backed up by some organization. Listen to my unsigned band. That's a damn good CD, recorded professionally, with no filler - and not signed to any label.

Of course, it says that Orchard is the label, but you can read about that in my journal. (Wonderful irony)

Redundancy

[satyap]

Too many blogs. I'll stick to livejournal, TYVM. At least it's relatively ad-free and I can get RSS feeds and export my journal.

Yahoo Experimenting with Blogs?

[GillBates0]

Yes with a probability of 0.5 No with a probability of 0.5

Blogs are repetative

[jj00]

My roommate has a Photo Journal on his web site. While some days are really cool, and he is a really talented amature photographer, most days consist on what he ate for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

I generally use it to figure out what I was doing on a particular day. His girlfriend gets a bit embarrased - she must feel like a rock star at times.

I'm wondering if in the long run this is work Yahoo's time and money. If it is cheap to implement, then why not.

Yawn...Blogs are just

[bob670]

an overly tech oriented replacment for "Dear Diary" and a waste of time for most readers. So unless your the current equivalent of Lewis & Clark or General Grant or Abraham Lincoln it's pretty much just cheap therapy and soap boxes for the commons...

Not trying to create flamebait, but honestly, what use is...

Dear Blog (July 25): Just read an article on Yahoo about the guy with no feet who is walking cross county on his hands to raise money for kids born without ear lobes. Isn't that uplifting???

Dear Blog (July 25) I love my new iMac, it's just so yummy and friendly, not like the evil Micro$oft Winblows. Yuck!

Dear Blog (July 26): I hate that darn Marsha Brady, she's just so perfect!!!

Dear Blog (July 29): I just read an article on Yahoo about world politics, what follows are my 3.5 pages of unfocussed rant, aren't I smart world?

Dear Blog (July 30): Why won't he notice me damnit? Well, he'll notice when his cat disappears, the PETA website says we should free all the domestically enslaved house pets anyway. Here goes nothing?

Dear Blog (July 31): Mom took me to the doctor today, they say the Lithium will take the edge off, but I am not sure what that means. Think I will take a nap now......

Who F ing cares, personal Blogs are 99% attention whoring. And there's plenty of chat rooms, message boards and newsgroups for that purpose, just use this post as an example.

Re:Yawn...Blogs are just

[limako]

Whereas I used to maintain a regular email correspondence with friends and family, I now spend most of that time writing a blog entry. It represents what I would have said to one or more of my regular correspondents, but it is written for a slightly more general audience. I still use email, but my messages tend to be shorter and more personal -- anything of general interest, I just post in my blog. I made the change because I found that I found that I fairly frequently wrote messages that mixed public and personal info together so that I would have to rewrite or resend the public stuff if I wanted to tell it to more than one person. The blog is just more efficient.

Re:Yawn...Blogs are just

[bob670]

because that's what personal communcation with friends and family is all about, efficiency. Very heart warming. Don't look now, civilization is collapsing.

Re:Yawn...Blogs are just

[ziggles]

Like you said, who cares? My blog is just cheap therapy and a soap box. Got a problem with that? Then don't read it, I won't lose any sleep over it. No one is forcing you to read anyone's blog.

I prefer blogging over a private diary because there is the off chance that a friend or random person will read it and make a comment to me, and it will start a conversation. Conversing with other people helps me learn about myself and the world.

Re:Yawn...Blogs are just

[bob670]

Hmmm, how did we ever learn about ourselves and the world without Blogs? Oh yes, we unplugged and conversed in person, that was it.

Re:Yawn...Blogs are just

[ziggles]

I'm not suggesting that you only do one or the other. You can do both! Amazing, I know.

Re:Yawn...Blogs are just

[bob670]

Perhaps your Blog is the exception, but most are self-serving dribble. It's possible I have simply lost faith in the free Internet to provide any real means of communication, and my cynicism is the real issue... but I'll bet not. Good luck, it's not a personal attack against your Blog or you, I just think as a form of communication they aren't all that useful to 98.9% of posters or readers.

No One Patented This?

[Greyfox]

Call me paranoid but I got $10 that says that once they get established, some guy comes along with a submarine patent and sues them and every other blog site on the Internet.

If no one has patented blogging, it's not too late as many previous patent suits have shown us!

Re:No One Patented This?

[kermitron]

I'm not sure if it's possible to patent something after it's become a generic term.

More targetted spam to follow?

[fehlschlag]

Wow! I use yahoo for a certain amount of anonymity, and am still surprised how they get hold of all the addresses to spam them.
Now I'll have the opportunity to provide even more info about my perversi..., er I mean interests, political and otherwise - yeah, that's what I meant :)

Re:What is this 'Yahoo' company..

[mike_mgo]

As far as investing goes, I've got no idea, but I find Yahoo useful for its "one stop shopping" feel. I use MyYahoo as a homepage which gives me sports scores, movie time, comics etc that I like in a quick format. Free email, internet games, fantasy sports, maps, etc all in one spot. Now probably all of these things are done better my more specialized sites, but the convenience of having all of these things in one place is, well, convenient.

Re:What is this 'Yahoo' company..

[Rude Turnip]

Let's see...they put a lot of disparate resources all together in one place and they actually make a profit from doing it? Kind of like the people that sold all the supplies during the 19th century gold rush.

Re: Possible Downside

[maxume]

Some of them may expect you to read their blogs?




On a regular basis?

Re:Wow!!!

[mcj]

-1 redundant

Re: Possible Downside

[kermitron]

They wouldn't stay friends very long.

Blog as Beverage

[swb]

In high school I went to a SciFi convention and they served Blog in the Con Suite.

It was a mixture of vodka, grenadine, and some juices. It tasted pretty good, especially when I was 17.

Re: Possible Downside

[maxume]

You kept them through the awful chain-letter era, what's going to change now?

Re:Not first post, first blog. I want some stat :)

[51M02]

Looking at the LJ raw stats it's hard to tell when this site took off. Currently there is around 2500 new weblog account a day.

• First 10+ "new accounts a day" : 1999-11-08.
• First 100+ "new accounts a day" : 2000-06-12
• First 1000+ "new accounts a day" : 2001-04-16

It's very subjective to say when this site took off.

Re: Possible Downside

[kermitron]

Well actually, I deleted the chain letters and visited their houses with a sack of doorknobs.

Although I should note....

[chenGOD]

I still get plenty of the regular old fashioned English language spam.

Reasons for and against blogs

[zapp]

I was always confused by the concept of a blog. Here's a few reasons I can think to use a blog, and why each one sucks.

1. Personal diary. Since it's public, you probably shouldn't put anything "diary worthy" in it. Also, years from now you can still pick up your paper diary and read it, think all these blog sites will still be around?

2. Updates to family and friends. OK, I can almost buy this, but really do we need to put up another barrier between those we love? I would rather tell my parents news on the phone, than tell them to go read my blog. Also, not everyone you know/love knows how to get to it.

3. "Making your mark on the world / etc". No one cares what you have to say, and no one probably reads it. If you have something worthy to say, make a real website, or find a position in the world where people will be able to hear what you have to say.

My biggest problem with though, is #1. I fear that the tech boom will hurt us big time in about 20 years when we realize all our digital videos, pictures, blog entries, etc have disappeared and we have no paper record of our lives. I am looking at it from a purely personal-records point of view, but it affects society on a much higher level as well.

Re:Reasons for and against blogs

[laika$chi]

The only good, broad use I've found for blogs are professional/niche blogs - ones that keep a particular field up-to-date on goings-on. See How Appealing for an excellent example from the leagl field - specifically the area of appellate law. There appear to be many good examples in the legal field.

However, I do agree that most are navel-gazing drivel.

Personally, when I used to work from several different places/computers, I've used a blog as an online troubleshooting log to keep track of problems I've chased and their solutions - but that was very personal, and not intended for public, or long-lived consumption.

Re:Reasons for and against blogs

[Phantasmo]

"Making your mark on the world / etc". No one cares what you have to say, and no one probably reads it.

Then what's the point of posting on Slashdot? Cancel your account immediately.

Re:Reasons for and against blogs

[YoJ]

The biggest advantage of blogs is that it lets you keep in touch with friends and acquaintances you don't normally interact with often. I don't like purely personal journals (they are usually too boring), but journals that mix semi-personal thoughts and intellectual thoughts are quite fun to read. It is a great motivating factor to keep a journal of research work you have done, and to see what other people are working on.

Re:Reasons for and against blogs

[turvalon]

I agree with most you said.. but I would use a blog for your #2 reason because some friends and family are all around the world. It's a lot easier for some of those who are in Japan and China to see a photo blog of me in the US then for me to call them. Cheaper too! :-)

Re:Reasons for and against blogs

[Billly Gates]

WIth livejournal you can secure your personal entries or have your friends view them. I met some cool and weird people so far but maybe its because I do not have a life.

korean blogs

[baomike]

does anyone else see a problem here?
I block most Korean sites, to much spam.

second thought: may be this is good, put all blogs
in korea and block it.

Classic

[MasTRE]

And of course, it's in Korean ;)

Re:Wow!!!

[Ominous Coward]

-1 off-topic. Duh.

Recursion Anyone

[Karna]

If you want some of the scoop on what Yahoo is up to, you should probably be reading Jeremy Zawodny's blog, for example:

* Y! Blogs releases in Korea
* Y! Unix messenger group begun
* Y! Search group begun

And other goodies :)

Makes total Sense

[Monofilament]

Well hmm what happened earlier this year?

Google bought blogger.com or something like that, the biggest of the Blog hosting sites/engines.

So in Yahoo's scramble.. to figure out why they're loosing to google, they're gonna start blogs too.

Personally i think Yahoo has always had a lot going for them .. they should try and keep doing their thing instead of copying Google. Google is a wonderful salad bowl search engine .. but well .. their categorization of things into easy categories has somethingn to be desired. I've alwasy gone to yahoo for stuff when i didn't exactly know what the site was but I wanted to find it by driling down in categories. Yahoo has always been good for that.

oh well maybe they'll figure out what their looking for some day.

I don't know..

[Quass]

Blogs can serve a purpose..
Some people on here are just ranting about how the personal experiences, or "dear diary" type of blogs are just flooding the internet, and are completely devoid of any interesting, or entertaining thought. Well, that may be true.. and I'm sure Yahoo! blogs will foster this kind of thing even more (because of easy access, and a large user base), but there are certain blogs out there that are useful, and serve a purpose.

Take my blog for instance (no I'm not linking it..). I created it by using one of those bloggin' apps (pmachine I think..), created my own stylesheet, etc.. So for 1 it looks original. But aside from that, I use it as a way to communicate to my friends and family. I'm away from home (toronto) for the next several months on business in Costa Rica. I don't get to call home that much, and writing emails is tedious to 20+ people, so I update my blog on a daily (heh, okay a few times a week) basis. They reply to me in comments, and it's working out quite well.

So who says they can't be useful?

What I want from MY blog:

[NaveWeiss]

I hope Yahoo enables all of these fatures:

• Topic icons and preferably custom. I love topic icons!
• Friends like in here, along with new journal notifications. Communities are nice too (like in LiveJournal) but I'm not used to them.
• Erase comments of annoying people and ban them too, and block anonymous posters. Slashdot kinda lacks in that.
• Embedding pictures in the blog and preferably allowing to upload them on the same server too.
• Lists that can appear on the side of the blog.
• Marital status, searchable. Blogs can be a great dating service too!

What do you think? Will they enable those things?

Blogs? why not journal?

[CowBovNeal]

How many people here think that blogs just sounds like its an bloated piece of shit that isn't going anywhere? When I see blogs, I always think of obesity.

Why can't there be more sites that use journal like livejournal.com or Slashdot's own journal system?

Journal sounds more elegant....

anybody else think so too?

On LiveJournal and Blogging

[Anonymous Coward]

LiveJournal predates the term 'blog', which is one reason why it's called "LiveJournal" and not "LiveBlog". Back when Brad Fitzpatrick was writing what would later become LiveJournal, I was writing something similar. Both were simple systems for personal use to automate the production of these kinds of sites, but Brad later modified his so that his friends could use it too. I'm now a LiveJournal developer, and my own software hasn't been touched in years :)

I think the main reason LiveJournal works as well as it does is that it was designed so that the users are all integrated with each other, unlike Blogger where each weblog is essentially distinct. Most people who keep journals at LiveJournal also read journals, so there's a nice mesh of reading and writing which keeps the thing going without anyone needing to be "famous".

The "six degrees of separation" thing has been proven to hold for LiveJournal.com's users who have at least a few "friends". You can try for yourself, even.

Re:On LiveJournal and Blogging

[vpetersen]

QUOTE "LiveJournal predates the term 'blog', which is one reason why it's called "LiveJournal" and not "LiveBlog". Back when Brad Fitzpatrick was writing what would later become LiveJournal, I was writing something similar." /END QUOTE

Let's not forget about finger. Probably the earlist easily identifiable 'blog' (what an ugly term) predecessor. Many game developers and security experts had their finger info available for access over www. Those were thoughts and ideas! Unlike 99% of blogs existing today.

Korea Gets All The Fun Toys...

[dew]

Check out http://kr.avatar.yahoo.com/ - Yahoo Avatars! Too bad my Korean's not so hot.

Re:Korea Gets All The Fun Toys...

[davidhan]

Check the url - I could say something about your engrish too, but yahooo.com does redirect to yahoo...

Re:More American nonsense...

[chiller2]

I can't comment on comedy from mainland European countries, but what made you decide to rip Brits just because O.B.L supposedly likes Benny Hill? The original poster was AC, could have been anyone.

Given the population of the US vs the UK you'd expect there to be a few more funny people in the US, though if you sift out the amusing shows from the endless slew of crap Fox, NBC, etc churn out you end up with Seinfeld, Friends, The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Frasier.

The rest is dire. Big Fat Greek Life *argh* Wanda at large *diabolical* Good Morning Miami *ick* That 70s show.. canned laughter'r'us, and no everybody doesn't love Raymond. I'm surprised they didn't cut Ray Romano's salary when he bitched about it... how hard it must be for an unfunny man to get by on a paltry $200k per show.

Going back to the era of Benny Hill, you can use the current "I love the 70s" run on VH1 as a good indicator of what was available in the US at the time, and it's hardly very good either.

I don't suppose you watch any of the current UK comedy that gets airtime in the US? Ever watched Ali G? (on HBO), Trigger Happy TV (Comedy Central), The Office, 3 Non Blondes, Blackadder (BBC America), etc? Quality stuff. There is a little more to UK comedy than Keeping up appearances and Monty Python, oh and Benny Hill.

Shame Peter Kay would never work in the US :(

Re:More American nonsense...

[bob670]

I think you are giving him too much credit, got it?

Re:More American nonsense...

[bob670]

It's all bad, don't misunderstand me. I think American sitcoms are as dumb as they come. I sited Benny Hill more as an effort to point out that any country is capable of producing mindless tripe, not as a direct shot at my Brit cousins, so don't take it that way. The majority of mass-media and entertainment in the U.S. has devolved into pure junk, but it's hardly a basis for international tension, as the original post implied. You can't complain about economic and social injustice in the U.S. and then toss in a reference to sitcoms, it's not like anyone over here (outside of Hollywood) is really proud of 3s Company of Welcome Back Kotter. Really, we swear.

AOL Journals = AOL Blogs

[davidhan]

AOL Journals is either in beta or already launched. And you can post by AIM.

Re:More American nonsense...

[nacturation]

LOL i bet this is the same kind of shit the hitler youth where saying!

LLOLOLOLLOLOLO

So if I understand correctly, your last sentence is saying:

Laughing Laughing Out Loud Out Loud Out Laughing Laughing Out Loud Out Laughing Out

Man, that's fucked!

Re:More American nonsense...

[bob670]

Someone help me with how this is flamebait? This is what happens when you let the passengers from the short bus handle moderation duties.

But can your blogging software run office pools

[slazlo]

Shameless plug of my site at 23 Pools allows you to setup Personal and Group Blogs with features like FOAF, GEOurl, Creative Commons licensing, Trackback, and other normal blogish stuff, for example check out my blog for an example of functionality.

In addition though to being a blog hosting site you can setup your own groups with normal Yahoo Groups like features but also give you the power to do just about any type of contest from:

• football pools
  
• square pools
  
• bracket pools
  
• survivor/dead pools
  
• baby pools
  

Sorry for the plug but it is football pool time again so create a blog and an office pool in one swoop. All written using Open Source of course

Blogs and Friendster

[unsung]

Looks to me like they're using blogs as an extension of Online Personals. A lot of people actually create these blogs as an outlet and hope to meet similar minds through it. Even if you take Friendster as an example, it's more interactive than, say, match.com. The problem with friendster is that it's still pretty static. Users don't use it to give a personal glimpse into their world - the way that a blog does.

The blogs real purpose

[Billly Gates]

You haven't figured it out yet have you?

Look here and say no more.

Dead trees

[achurch]

My biggest problem with though, is #1. I fear that the tech boom will hurt us big time in about 20 years when we realize all our digital videos, pictures, blog entries, etc have disappeared and we have no paper record of our lives.

Very good point; I make a point of keeping stuff that's important to me on paper, and one of these days I plan to get some of my digital photos printed. On the flip side, though, we don't need everything about us recorded on permanent media; I see the blog as a good medium for temporary comments, random musings, and the like. (In this sense, it approaches your #2, but I'd point out that, unless you're very friend-deprived or you don't have a job, using the telephone exclusively can be prohibitively time-consuming. Again, I'd look at it in degrees: I like using the telephone myself, but for quick questions, time confirmations and the like, E-mail serves at least as well. I don't keep a blog, but if I did I'd probably only use it for things like "look at the pretty pictures my new camera takes" or "here's a cute animation I found".)

What upside?

[ExEleven]

I dont see an upside...

Oh wait I dont have any friends.

Oh well.