The Rise and Fall of the Tech Blogosphere

The inimitable Robert X. Cringely, who writes a much-read weekly tech column for PBS, brings new insights to the white-hot Microsoft/Yahoo merger story in this week’s piece. Cringely may or may not be talking out of his hindquarters with his speculation that Microsoft’s main motivation for the takeover attempt is to achieve a culture shift inside the company, but at least he brings something new to the party. Indeed, the most interesting part of the article is arguably the first paragraph:

It’s a challenge for a journalist coming late to a story like Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Yahoo. I had literally just pressed the SEND key on last week’s column when news hit the wire. What to do? The way things are structured at PBS I couldn’t just pump out another column (that structure may be changing by the way), so the big question was whether the passage of seven days would make pointless anything I would have to say. So I waited and waited, and it is a testament to the shallowness and endless repetition of both the tech and business media that there is still plenty to say about the deal, the true nature of which few people yet understand.

Quite. I’m not entirely sure whether I’ve simply become bored with the self-referential ranting of the tech blogosphere or whether it has actually become boring. I still read Techmeme every day, but I’m increasingly drawn to a select group of publishers: mainstream publications (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, etc.), a small handful of professional-quality tech news/analysis blogs (Ars Technica, Read/Write Web, sometimes TechCrunch), individuals with real credentials (Nick Carr, John Battelle, etc.), speciality blogs (The Unofficial Apple Weblog, TorrentFreak, etc.), company blogs and the occasional random article that catches my eye.

Granted, this is still a pretty broad group, but I don’t read all of them all the time. I try to get news about a given story from the best, most authoritative sources. For example, for analysis of the Microhoo sturm und drang, I read articles in the NYT and WSJ and the announcement on Microsoft’s web site. Why would I spend the time reading six or seven rehashings on all the “A list” tech news blogs out there? What purpose do these me-too pieces actually serve?

I predict a slow decline in the number of such blogs. It’s kind of harsh to put it this bluntly, but if you don’t do any real reporting, don’t write exceptionally well and stir up interest mainly through wild speculation, your long-term prospects probably aren’t great. Instead, the mainstream news outlets (and their blogging arms, like Bits and AllThingsD) will win the battle for general tech news and analysis. They’ll buy the best blogging networks, so TechCrunch and Read/Write Web are heading for a big payday. The other A listers will fade into oblivion as tech news junkies like me realize that they have better ways to spend their time.

The other area that has a bright future is specialty blogging. Rather than reading what some dude who has built up a big audience by blogging something generic about absolutely every story that crosses the wires has to say about the ruckus du jour, folks will seek enlightenment from the blog best placed to have inside information or true insights. Incidentally, that’s one of the main reasons I decided to set up my own specialty blog, Just Browsing, rather than continue to pen my own uninformed opinion pieces on random topics here on Peer Pressure. Yes, like this one.

Bookmark to:

7 Comments »

1. There are even more specialty blogs out there than general-purpose blogs.

   One of the greatest things about bloggers is that each blogger comes at a story with a unique perspective based on their experience and personal feelings about companies, events, etc. Reading the big guys leaves out the little guys, and where on EARTH did Cringely get the idea that it was an all-cash deal? From the very beginning, it was a part-cash, part-stock deal.

   Bringing up the Broadcast.com deal? Everyone KNOWS that was probably the point at which Yahoo put their tail between their legs. He’s mainly rehashing exactly what everyone else did in the past week: the implications of the culture clash, etc. Adding in a years-old deal doesn’t make it fresh, and ignoring that it wasn’t an all-cash deal seems a glaring error when anointing him as king of the coverage.

   Comment by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — 2/8/2008 @ 2:54 pm

2. Matt,
   You’re right that just because you have the ability to use a blog to say something about a story such as Microsoft/Yahoo doesn’t necessarily mean you should or need to jump into the conversation. There are far too many bloggers who add little or nothing other than creating more noise. If you do want to say something, the big challenge is coming up with something unique. For example, I wrote a post earlier this week about whether anyone could buy Google based on the idea that if Yahoo can be bought for $44-billion would it be possible for someone to step up and spend $158-billion on Google. It was total conjecture but I think it resonated with people because it was, well, different. Not to suggest I have the secret to different thinking but that’s what you have to do if don’t want to jump on the bandwagon.

   Comment by Mark Evans — 2/8/2008 @ 8:42 pm

3. Same here. Techmeme still does *surface* useful stories, but I have to weed through links based on how well I remember that writer producing original ideas in the past. I’m actively seeking other news sources… I’m seeking information, not just opinion.

   Check out WeSmirch.com… it’s effective at doing the National Enquirer bit, and it seems to be a similar dynamic in Memeorandum and Techmeme.

   Comment by John Dowdell — 2/8/2008 @ 9:47 pm

4. “sometimes” TechCrunch? I’m confused…

   

   Comment by michael arrington — 2/8/2008 @ 10:02 pm

5. Obviously I meant that I only read your articles!

   Comment by Matt — 2/8/2008 @ 11:29 pm

6. Not every post from every blogger in the tech blogosphere can be good. There’s no question about that. But beyond the brand names that you mentioned, I see a lot of interesting discussion in what we call the “B-List”, comprised of folks hovering just at the bottom or below TechMeme’s leaderboard, who take a lot of thought before they write, who analyze news, or do investigative reporting. We could all write a post about signal/noise ratios on specific blogs and what we think offers the best user experience, but some of us (myself included) are trying to change the perceptions you outline.

   Comment by Louis Gray — 2/9/2008 @ 7:17 pm

7. Louis,

   One of the great things about online media in general is that the barriers to entry are low enough that anyone with the requisite time, energy and talent can climb into the ring and start slugging it out. This is part of what Chris Anderson terms the shift from a “pre-filter” to a “post-filter” world, undoubtably a positive trend.

   All this to say that I don’t disagree with you. There are plenty of lesser known blogs that are extremely well-written, insightful and valuable. My point was rather that, as the space matures, it’s no longer enough to be yet another voice in a chorus of hastily assembled commentary on the big news stories of the day.

   Comment by Matt — 2/11/2008 @ 2:35 pm

Trackback URL RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>