MyBlogLog.

I’m still checking out popular Web 2.0 sites from 2006. I took the plunge with MyBlogLog. It’s a bit of an odd name, but it provides a service that has lots of potential. It starts out as a tracking stat service but it adds some community and social features across blogs.

The tracking service is handled by a script you add to your blog, providing yet more stats for the info-hungry - namely what pages people are viewing and what links they click on. This information is supposed to help you figure out where people are going through the site, presumably through a MyBlogLog cookie. I suppose Google Analytics provides all the stats I could ever imagine, but that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax I’m getting my head around.

But the real reason why I signed up for MyBlogLog has nothing to do with this information. It’s the funky sidebar I’ve started seeing show up on more blogs, featuring little square graphics of recent visitors. Again, this seems to be happening through a MyBlogLog cookie. The site recognizes that you’ve logged into MyBlogLog and calls up your name and image, which then displays on the blog you’re visiting in a sidebar widget.

This image links to a message board style community page on MyBlogLog (here’s said page for Webomatica) which features your blog. Other MyBlogLoggers (that’s a tongue-twister) can leave messages and meet each other. I guess it’s kind of like MySpace except obviously a bit saner.

So what’s the use of this? Well, I’m curious exactly who is reading my blog. The only thing I’ve had to to go on are the few people who comment regularly. But I know there are more people, as my traffic logs and feed stats indicate. MyBlogLog might provide some answers. Admittedly, this will only be a small subset of people, namely people who blog and then people who are signed in to MyBlogLog, but it’s something.

Second, this sort of service might be useful for people that have their own sites that would like to add some social features (namely community), while still driving traffic to their sites. But MyBlogLog benefits also, as they’re creating a social network where none existed before, plus there is existing content. It’s also a “niche” social site, for bloggers. Pretty smart. Also, once they’ve gotten tons of people using their service, they can easily add more social features.

Another benefit is that it will help me discover other blogs quickly. MyBlogLog will be a good addition to the network sites I visit regularly (Technorati, Megite, Techmeme, Tailrank).

What are some of the negatives? Well, I’m pretty cookie-phobic (I delete my cookies daily when I quit Firefox) so there’s a fair chance I’ll tire of logging into MyBlogLog repeatedly. Second, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before the site gets overrun by nutty spammer types. If it starts turning too MySpace-y, I’m out. Lastly, if I don’t see any noticeable increase in traffic or comments on my site, I’ll definitely wonder what benefit MyBlogLog has - despite all the eye candy and community features (an obvious one would be ratings on blogs or individual posts).

One last benefit is when I’m surfing around visiting other people’s blogs, it will automatically indicate as such in their blogs, meaning quick and easy promotion of Webomatica. Time will tell if I actually get any traffic from this, but it’s worth a shot. I also get a strange kick out of seeing my cat’s picture plastered all over the blogosphere.

[tags]Technology, MyBlogLog, Web 2.0[/tags]

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