The joy of blogging

But who cares? Nobody outside the known bloggersphere cared much about blogging until Google came along and sprinkled Google dust on Pyra. Update: Last month Google acquired Pyra Labs, the company behind the blogging tool Blogger. Blogs are the shorthand for Weblogs, online diaries that are far simpler to navigate than your average web site due to a simple history list and lack of complex structure.

Google buying Pyra is a bit like a rising star record label signing a complete unknown . The sum is far greater than the parts. Suddenly, blogging is the new online equivalent of rap and Google is becoming known as Boogle. Meanwhile everyone's favourite search engine is starting to look like it has a grand scheme.

Not surprisingly the jury is out on what Google is up to. So many column inches were written that you can take your pick of reasons from the conspiratorial - Google to be Lords of the weblog empire; to the magnanimous - gentle giant saves Blogger from the vagaries of the market, breathing new life into the little sapling.

But first let's get blogging into perspective. Confession. As far as online journalism is concerned, I think blogging *is* the "new new thing". And no, I am not a blogger.

The attraction of blogs is two fold. Firstly, it is the personal and uncensored nature of a diary. Secondly has an illicit nature to it. It is rather like peeking into someone's private notes. There is also the ever-present sniff of an "exclusive" story or insider gossip.

There is a unique fascination in seeing what people write when not held down by the constraints of an editorial team or worse, a corporate brand. They strongly reflect the views and opinions of the writers, something that is often lacking from the traditional editorial world.

Of course the flip side is sloppy writing, bad editing, and navel gazing of the highest degree. But what national newspaper isn't guilty of that now and again too?

But Blogs are the online equivalent of Reality TV. In an age where voyeurism has become a national sport it is a natural progression that we are drawn to a confessional style of journalism.

On blogs you learn more about what the writer thinks than in current 'objective' forms of journalism which consign the thinking writer to the role of columnist. The diary timeline makes it easier to get a sense of how a writer is exploring issues over time - a valuable new component in a world where traditional journalism promotes the illusion that everything is happening 'now'. Why is it TV news rarely tells you the time something occurs or was filmed?

And some blogs are so confessional it's the textual equivalent of a watching a car crash as you slowly see the writer's credibility self-destruct in a crumpled heap of insults and snipes at other individuals.

My own view is that Google bought Pyra because it realises that there are interesting things going on in the weblog scene and it needs to get closer to them. It may have a grand plan but I suspect not. It doesn't want to damage its credibility so it will probably just act like a sugar daddy for a while, content in the knowledge that having Pyra will be nice eye candy on its flotation document. While also knowing that getting thousands of bloggers to write about you does no harm to your street cred so long as you don't start to look like the AOL of search. (I did read one blog which imagined a future scenario in which Google allowed Microsoft to buy a large share of the company - bloggers have clearly put Google on probation.)

In a post boom downturn with so little money around it is hard to get excited about a new media when it doesn't have the ring of VC money around its neck but blogging is something to write home about. It has all the elements of a hot recessionary stock: it's dirt cheap, it;s very open access, it's radical and anarchic, and it just got endorsed by the hottest thing left on the internet.

Google came late to the internet party but it is currently one of the best shows in town. The way it handles Pyra and the blogging community (if such a thing exists) is likely to affect some serious flows of capital in the months to come.

The real story will be told when Google goes to market. Then it will attract far closer scrutiny of the ways in which it monitors searches and indexes information. That will be a good time to see how Pyra has been integrated into the organisation. µ