Google Knows I Blog for Google
Anne Helmond, University of Amsterdam.
Web 2.0 Guest Lecture - 7th May 2009

pajama blogger
Foto: MichielB

lonely blogger

the personal homepage
• Fairly static and closed self-referential environment
• Content stored in one place
• Based on the unit of the page
• Required HTML knowledge

the blog
• The blog is a database
• The blog is not a closed environment
• Based on the unit of the post
• Focus on freshness and links
• Does not require HTML knowlegde (unless...)

what is a blog?
new form of journalism
reverse-chronological ordered collection of entries
diary
product of blog software
personal publication tool

anatomy of a blog

blogs “as a medium and bi-
product of practice” (boyd, 2006)

what is the blogosphere?
This a hyperbolic display of blogs using both the WWE and the ICWSM 2007 data sets.
© Matthew Hurst

what is the blogosphere?

the blogosphere according
to the engines
indexing machines

the blogosphere according
to the engines

software optimized for the engines

software optimized for the engines
blog comments do not count
for the engines

software optimized for the engines
bloggers breaking out of the software-
engine regime with “dofollow”

software-engine symbiosis

software-engine symbiosis
default settings

engines are the starting point
of the blogosphere

but the engines create
different blogospheres

engines segregate web spheres

The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits — to You
© Wired/Infographic: Build

Blog Abandonment
© Wefeelfine

Thank you. Questions?
a.helmond@uva.nl
Blog: www.annehelmond.nl