Links, Blogging, Facebook and Others

Frederic    web 2.0    

Ever since the great Facebook hype of 2007 started a few months ago, I have been wondering why I, who usually jumps on any new tech fad, am totally left unimpressed by it and really don’t care how much money it is worth.

That is, until a read a short piece by Matthew Ingram this morning about the power of linking.

Like most bloggers, I think I tend to take the power of the link for granted. I write things, I link to other bloggers and to websites, etc. etc. — that’s how it works, right? Carry on — nothing to see here. And yet, every now and then something comes along that reinforces just how powerful a simple link can be.

Matthew goes on to talk about how important links are in creating relationships between bloggers (Matthew, by the way, was one of the first “A-listers” who linked to me, directly followed by Scoble).

What does that have to do with facebook? Well, I think I don’t care much for Facebook and its consorts because my blog is my social network. People who know me read my blog, people I link to read my blog, people who read other people’s blogs see a link to my blog and leave a comment or email me. If I feel the need to add a widget, I can do that. If I want to start a conversation with somebody, I can do that with my blog. Instead of ‘friending’ somebody, I can just link to people whose blog I enjoy reading (and especially now that the idea of ‘friends’ has been perverted by the likes of Scoble who have 2500 ‘friends’ – a “who-is-who of the tech industry” as he is prone to say…).

In many ways, a link might be a stronger gesture than ‘friending’ somebody.

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