Friday, June 02, 2006

How do you.....

.....get on this panel here at the start page of your blogger account? They say here that these are the blogs they've "noticed" recently, and they're encouraging us to have a look if we feel like browsing. How does your blog get "noticed"? Who does the noticing? Could it be there's some dedicated blogger staff sitting in some dark dinghy room, staring at their computers and running through the entire database screening and browsing every blog on their system? And then suddenly, EUREKA! Check it out guys! here's an interesting blog that everyone should browse to! OOHHH let's put in on the "noticed" panel!

This panel, though capable of providing some material to glance at during times of boredom, is bothersome. Well bothersome to me at least. And in a number of ways too. Firstly, how do they decide which blogs to feature? The internet is a gargantuan network of computers and therefore, plays host to a ginormous amount of people at any single moment. Are there a set of guidelines to follow in order to ensure that most, if not all, of the possible interest groups are met? Could there be a person who actually clicked on every single featured blog and find nothing ineresting at all?

I clicked on some of them and was flabbergasted to find some really boring blogs in there. One showed nothing but the author's pet dog (and a really ugly one too) and another had heaps and heaps of programming jargon in there. I am in no way saying that my blog is any better and frankly, I think its filled with rubbish, but these other blogs are FEATURED! Blogger actually thinks they are worth checking out! Who does the quality control? Or maybe its just a computer program that randomly spits out a blog onto that list.

Now if its not a computer program, and someone at blogger actually thinks that a blog has content worth showcasing, does that mean that people are sifting through our blogs? Is this like a "big brother" thing where everything we say and publish is being scrutinised and kept under the watchful eye of some blogger government? Will we be eliminated or have our accounts suspended if we mention something that upsets them?

So whats up with that panel? Is it a geniune spot to showcase outstanding blogs? Or is it a subtle warning to let you know that an all seeing entity is keeping tabs on what you say. eerie.

No comments: