That’s Not How I Roll Anymore
Notice anything different? I didn’t think so. Let me break it to you gently.
I’ve removed my Blogroll page. I know.. shocking.
Actually, it shouldn’t be shocking. The popularity and usefulness of the blogroll on people’s blogs has been waning for some time now. I’ve noticed a lot fewer blogrolls out on the blogs I visit and read.
Sure, it was a way to say, “hey, I like these blogs.. check them out.” But I got to wondering something. If I wasn’t looking at the blogrolls on other’s blogs, then how many people were looking at mine? If you do, let me know, but I’ll take a guess [and using my page results from Woopra and Google, it’s not a page that gets hit that often] that it’s just not needed anymore.
If you miss it, then maybe I can do a post every so often where I mention blogs I visit.
And of course, if there’s a blog I like, I’ll add it to my feed reader and visit, read and comment.
So long Blogroll. You served your purpose back in the day.
About The Author
I got rid of my blogroll a while ago. I used it before I knew of feed readers to check the blogs I liked. Once I signed up for Google Reader, I no longer needed it. I’ve got more thoughts on it, but I think I’ll blog about it next week instead. Stay tuned … and have a good weekend in the meantime!
nilsa – Blogroll be gone. As with most of your blog posts, you have a way of making sense with the subjects you discuss.
I still check out other people’s when I am looking for new blogs to read and like to have it there to support the blogs I read 🙂
Not into blogrolls at all anymore. I should get rid of my own.
I think you’re right on track. it occurred to me as I read this that that is right in line with how identity (and blogging) on the internet has evolved, even for stable bloggers. Even they may switch hosts/urls, or they may come favor a different project over the one you came to know them by (and wish you linked *that* rather than the first thing). But (being on someone’s) a blogroll is especially irrelevant now for unstable bloggers like myself or game-changer-uppers.
I think it’s just as well that people establish a cyber ‘Card’ to hand out as their site, like a Google Profile, which can be a hub of peoples’ relevant sites and a portal to their online life. They can list their big, mainstay blog up at the top, or whatever, and update the list as their interaction with the web grows and changes – same url forever.
And people are great now at SEO tagging and all that stuff, getting their big blogs listed where and when they want them to be. If someone wants to give a boost to their buddy, it seems to me its more effective and meaningful to plug them in a blog post or tweet about them than to hang them up on a wall nobody really looks at anymore.
Good call!
That’s really funny, I was just thinking about this last night. 😉
I think commenting has replaced blog rolling. I mean, that’s mostly how I discover new blogs: I go to your blog, and then I read a funny/insightful/touching comment and figure “Hey, I’ll go see what that person has to say on their own space!”.
But I hesitate to get rid of my blogroll, because it’s in the format “Bloggers I’ve met / Bloggers I hope to meet soon”, and that still makes me smile when I see it.
I also thing Avitaballin’ has replaced Rickrollin’, but that’s another post. 😉
Hey, that’s what you should have done: Replaced all the links to the blogs on your blogroll to the Rick Astley video (Or the Avitaball picture if you’re evil like me). Then you would really know who visits that page and clicks those links.
Got rid of my blogroll a while back, too. They’re so 2005. With feedreaders, no longer needed. Plus, mine was always woefully out of date. At least now I only need to keep ONE place updated…Google Reader.
I finally got rid of mine too. I couldn’t keep it updated and I haven’t used it in ages. Of course, it makes it harder to discover new blogs, but I don’t have time for that either!
I removed mine a while back also, wasn’t really getting anything out of it and I was never sure anyone ever looked at it anyway. Oh, and I was always a bit crap at updating it as well 😉
kilax – I think what I’ll end up doing is having a regular blog post that lists blogs I follow. Plus that will get me to post more often, too. 🙂
sybil law – It’s the cool thing to do… blog roll no more.
catherine – Your Google Profile (now flavors.me profile) writeup is a great idea. Just share the information on how to find you and what blogs you are reading on a centralized profile page works well. And with the right SEO tags, it will make it easy for others to find you.
lesombre – I do the same with people’s comments on blogs I regularly read. Let’s me explore newer blogs and I don’t have to go to a separate page to find them. Although the RickRoll idea does temp me some. 😉
karl – See, you were ahead of the curve on all of us with the removal of your blogroll.
finn – Updating my blogroll was always something I was never good at. Now I don’t have to worry about that.
kevin – As I mentioned to Megan above, I was never good at keeping my blogroll updated.
I have my blogroll up and I actually use it myself. After I post or if I go to my blog for something (like to reread my writing and tell myself I’m funny/entertaining), if I see someone has posted recently, I’ll click over to them from my blogroll.
kaylen – Good to know. I used mine for that same purpose for a while, but once I started using Google Reader to keep track of the blogs I read, it melded into my blog reading routine very well.