Are blogs the vanity press of the Internet?

March 03, 2003

Indeed. Their heritage is, of course, HTML. The original vanity press of the Internet. However, this style of self-publishing arrives with different connotations than self-publishing in the world of books of paper. It is inexpensive and easy. If your uncle’s dog has a website, why not you?

Web sites and, lately, blogs provide indices to the vast world wide web. Find a like-minded individual, sift through their personal musing and selected links, and you enter the web through a friendly portal. When I can find ’em, I prefer an individual’s quirky view of the web to search-engine-generated lists of sites.

After lurking in the land of blogs for quite a while, I’ve decided to create one of my own. It feels a little strange to write words for a potential audience of anonymous strangers. Oddly, I never felt that way about writing software.

I imagine in my mind’s ear that this story is for my friends and colleagues, but I’m posting it on the public Internet. Since I have benefited from the blogs of others, perhaps there are those in this sprawling ‘net community that may be interested in mine.

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