azeem.azhar.co.uk: Google buys blogger

February 16, 2003

Google buys blogger

[Thanks Marko] Dan Gillmor reports that Google is buying Pyra Labs, the firm behind blogger. If blogging wasn't mainstream enough, it certainly will be now.

What does this mean?

Google has recognised that blogging is becoming a significant share of web consumption. By owning one of the major blogging platforms it can provide more timely search access to the 200,000 or so blogs running on Blogger's platform.
Better reputation management. One element of Google's relevance ranking is the PageRank system which uses inbound and outbound links to build up a representations of a specific web pages reputation or reliability. Blogs inherently carry rich linking information: the links are topical, created recently, created specifically for each post. This provides a wealth of data that Google could use to improve the relevancy of all the searches (not just those on news.)
Improved visibility for Google: expect that the Google API will be quickly built into to Blogger so that Google gets an additional 200,000 sites running its search services.
Part of this is, no doubt, a media share play. if that is the case, other people chasing share of audience, like MSN and Yahoo!, may start to investigate blogging platforms. LiveJournal and MoveableType are obvious candidates. Of course, Yahoo! and AOL are somewhat on the backfoot compared to Google, Yahoo!s recent acquisition of Inktomi notwithstanding.

Posted by Azeem at February 16, 2003 10:34 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Google + Blogger = Go_Ogle, the Mother of All Online Dating Sites

Here's how I think it will happen:

First, Google will improve the searchability of the "blogosphere" by making it easy for bloggers to append a file containing information about themselves and their blogger friends. This information will be encoded in an RDF dialect called FOAF (Friend of a Friend).

Soon after, it will start to dawn on people that the FOAF file is effectively a static online profile, while the associated blog is akin to a living profile (in the 'living document' sense).

One tipping (i.e. inflection) point later, usage of Google by date seekers will grow to an such extent that our (grand)children will read about it in their history texts. Online dating is at 26M users and growing, after all.

Google will then acquire the best RDF query toolmakers and launch Go_Ogle, the mother of all online dating sites.

Once Go_Ogle is in place, the possibilities are absolutely mind-googling :^)

More on this, including a pointer to foundational code for GPLed Go_Ogle, at www.opportunityservices.com.

Thoughts?

Enjoy,

Frank Ruscica

Founder
The Opportunity Services Group :: Have Fun to Get Ready
www.opportunityservices.com

Posted by: Frank Ruscica on February 19, 2003 06:16 PM

Azeem

While will Google's ownership give it 'timely access to the 200,000 or so blogs running on Bloggers platform'? I mean, why does Google need to own Blogger to get such timely access?

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious.

Tony

Posted by: Tony Feldman on February 24, 2003 11:24 AM

Tony - it will give them direct access to the contents of those 200,000+ blogs; they will not have to wait for them to be spidered to make them searchable.

Posted by: Josh on March 3, 2003 08:08 PM

Somehow I don't think the direct searchable access is part of Google's plan. So far the only obvious result of the acquisition has been the appearance of syndicated adwords text ads on blogger blogs. While that alone may prove to make their investment pay off in time, I imagine there must be more behind it than that. It seems that either the data contained in blogs or further access to pages (beyond ad syndication) must be useful to them.

Posted by: john on May 6, 2003 08:21 AM

Hi,

GIve them a chance! It'll take a while for them to fully integrate (or even partially integrate) blogger into google!(Google news is still in beta).

best
aa

Posted by: azeem on May 6, 2003 08:42 AM

Boris rules !

Posted by: Boris on October 1, 2003 07:50 PM