Why I Hate Blogs

Yes, I see the humor in that one of my first blog post is about why I hate blogs. Let me clarify: it's not that I hate blogs it's that I hate the chronological format. There are a lot of great, articulate writers producing wonderful works. Unfortunately, some are posted in the traditional blog format.

Blogs are for Breaking News and Diaries

There's no single definition of a blog but one consistent characteristic is that blogs publish in chronological order with the most recent articles first. That's fantastic for time sensitive news and personal diaries but lousy for just about everything else. If I need news or someone’s stream of consciousness then the blog format is the ideal choice.

Blogs Deprive Us of Wonderment

The chronological order of articles makes it difficult to browse great content. Search engines are wonderful tools if you know what you're looking for. But what happens when you don't know where to start? When you don't know what to search? Or when you didn't know what you were secretly missing?

Browsing Leads to Curiosity and Discovery

Search engines help us run in and run out of a website. It's the difference between rushing into the local super store to grab toilet paper versus getting lost in the local farmer's market. Sure, we all need toilet paper and there's a comfort and convenience in being able to find the staples quickly and easily. But sometimes immersing yourself in the experience leads to creativity and discovery.

There Is Hope

We instinctively know the limitations of the blog format due to the popularity of sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. We reach out to the community to help us discover. We are avid users of Twitter and Facebook hoping our friends will broaden our horizons. (Of course, we also hope to find embarrassing pictures of them at the same time).

These types of tools expose us to sites and articles we may never have discovered on our own. But the blog format itself is missing a great opportunity: Pull your readers into your site with related content. Create tangents from them to follow. Engage your readers with more than a discussion board and some links. Help them explore.