Interesting: HubPages

December 20th, 2006

HubPages.
HubPages.

InterestingDave directed me to HubPages, another Web 2.0 type take on information articles, kind of similar to Squidoo. Since I just looked at Squidoo and was rather confused by the whole affair, I figured I should check out HubPages.

Anyhow, HubPages is way easier to “get.” Essentially, users write articles (a “hub”) which once in the system, are rated by other HubPage users. The highest rated “hubs” show up on the front page, digg style. So in a sense, maybe it’s kind of like digg smashed with Blogger or some other free site.

In one sense, you could say HubPages is digg except all the articles are part of the site instead of external and submitted as links. There are obvious advantages to this approach (HubPages gets to put ads on all of them and probably “owns” the content to some degree) but also disadvantages (the quality of the “hubs” are going to depend on the type of people they attract and can convince to write articles). However, due to the rating system, the cream (if any) is supposed float to the top.

Creating a hub is quite straightforward. In case you can’t think of any topics yourself, the site offers an “idea bank” with some financial incentive. This is a good strategy for them to fill in holes in their subject coverage (or maybe they’re just based around popular searches). Some of the suggested ideas were pretty hilarious “how to use a tampon,” “adult birthday party ideas,” “how long can you live without food”. Anyhow, I had to click around until I found a subject I could actually handle, and settled on “how to get a girl to like you.”

The creation tools are basic but intuitive (although not pretty): a text edit box and some options to add images. I had a problem saving text updates in Safari (minus one point), but everything worked fine in Firefox.

As a hub author, you do retain the ability to moderate comments, edit, and hopefully de-publish your article as desired. Of course, once published, you’re instantly subjected to the community of other HubPage users who will rate your newly penned page, and your reputation (I never published my HubPage because it ended up being totally sarcastic and sure to ruin my nonexistent HubPage cred).

Lastly, in case you need additional incentive to join HubPages, you also get a cut of the Google AdSense ads that display on your particular pages. It’s nice to see a Web 2.0 site giving something back to the content creators in this regard - I hope more sites start doing this, especially since writing decent articles is what it is: work.

But will I use it? Probably not, since I already have this blog. I’m a bit loathe to hand over my writing to another site - even with the enticements of a larger audience, more traffic, and potential ad revenue. But that’s not to say other folks wouldn’t get something out of it, especially a person who just wants to write a few articles a month - and not get wrapped up in the spam-fighting, public-ridicule-inviting hobby that is running your own hapless blog.

And as a reader who’s just looking for information? One need only glance at the top rated stories on the HubPage front page and see if they float your boat.

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