Would a blog by any other name read as well?
It used to be that there were newspapers and newsletters. It was fairly easy to tell what came from where. Newspapers hired journalists to report the news Although they’re supported by add sales, the expectation is that the news is independent from advertising. Newsletters, on the other hand, contained the direct news of whomever published them, whether that be a non profit or a company.
Now, however, there’s the Internet and blogs have been tossed into the mix. It’s confused things because anyone can write a blog and say pretty much anything.
In the midst of this, Google News has developed a search methodology that may discriminate against blogs when it comes to people looking for news, according to a post by Matthew Ingram on gigaom.com. He says the criteria seem to be based on whether a publication identifies itself as a blog. This could matter a whole lot to bloggers who consider their work to be a news source. It may matter less to those who use a blog more as a newsletter to promote themselves or their companies.
Which leads me back to the question I urge everyone to ask when starting a blog: Why? The more you know about what you are trying to accomplish with your blog, the better you will be able to plan and maintain it.