Comments on: Are Tech Blogs The Hello Magazine Of The Online World?

By: Sidrah Zaheer Siddiqui

Sidrah Zaheer Siddiqui — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 08:49:00 +0000

Again a great post. Thanks for it!

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:50:51 +0000

Yeah a large amount of people still use the web for Twitter. I don’t think it is wrong to be reporting that sort of stuff just wonder why people hype it up into such a big deal! I guess Twitter and Facebook are just so trendy and widely used at the moment that even 1 new button will change the whole user experience. People are interested in reading about it so can hardly blame them for writing about it I guess

By: Steph

Steph — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:43:35 +0000

Maybe it’s because I’m looking at it from a design & dev point of view but “just one little button being added to a site” is understating that particular example. To me that’s a update to the functionality of the application. I’m not sure what proportion of Twitter users use the Twitter.com interface over a mobile or desktop client but it’s the first port of call for all new users at least. It changes the interaction for them.

Social media is what Mashable is all about so I’m not surprised they had it as breaking news.

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:33:25 +0000

You speak in riddles Marc! Nah I get your point and it does of course lead to the hype cycle! Sure some people might even be reading this and popping over to TC and Mashable for the first time as a result and becoming new subscribers!

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:31:42 +0000

Yeah I agree Dermot that all of us in the Tech world get sucked in to this sort of bubble. We go around thinking something like a list feature on Twitter is going to change the world when 99/100 people you would ask in the street wouldn’t have a clue what you are talking about!

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:30:24 +0000

Yeah transfer is a good example also although a lot of that is based on lies and rumour. At least with the tech stories it tends to be the truth. I guess hype sells newspapers and magazines in the same way as it send readers to tech blogs!

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:28:00 +0000

There are 100s Steph but here is the first one I found http://xrl.us/bggb42

I know tons of people use Twitter and all but it’s just one little button being added to a site at the end of the day!

By: Marc McEntegart

Marc McEntegart — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:20:36 +0000

I often wonder if posts like this perpetuate the whole thing… I mean, I know a lot of people who would find the news that there’s to be a “new button” added to a page they frequent as interesting (or perhaps more interesting) than a post that speculates on whether or not posting it in the first place was correct

I suppose there’s no reason not to apply this blog post to itself, is there?

By: Dermot

Dermot — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:14:10 +0000

Niall

its worse they’re the VIP magazines of this world. Living in a Ghetto that few outside the tech world even care about

Dermot

By: Lauren Fisher

Lauren Fisher — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:08:43 +0000

Hey Steph. I guess the most recent one that stood out for me would be the retweet button on Twitter. Mashable had this as breaking news at a few different times, including when it was a rumour. http://tinyurl.com/ydfea5o

By: EoinK

EoinK — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:29:31 +0000

But surely every industry has this. How many websites and newspapers cover up to the min claims about transfer news between sports clubs? They hype up any suggestion of a big player move based on a random comment from a club player or agent. Then you don’t hear about it again for the rest of the season. Or when sky news reports actions of politicians as it happens while trying to give some analysis on demand.

I presume if your a fan of any particular interest there are websites which publish, hype up or perhaps don’t explain the full story of issues relevant to that issue. A kin to hello doing it for those who have an interest in celebrities.

Eoin

By: Steph

Steph — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:13:31 +0000

“A new and trendy service can be adding something like a small button or tab to their homepage and it will be sensationalized into a story of huge importance.”

Do you have an example to support this?

By: Darragh

Darragh — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:54:46 +0000

Eh, Niall, don’t you want to make this something similar? Or did I read your comment over here incorrectly? http://trusttommy.com/2009/10/22/the-irish-twitter-complex-2/#comment-17538

I really am not getting what this blog is at all, am I?

By: Niall Harbison

Niall Harbison — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:52:05 +0000

Yeah I think you are right Mark about needing to take a step back and really analyze things before making judgement but that doesn’t get you the millions of RSS readers and traffic. We live in a world where people just want news in an instant feed and it is getting worse TBH! I don’t mind the speed of the news it is more the fact that the news is so trivial sometimes and seems similar to trashy tabloid style news

By: Mark Pack

Mark Pack — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Well said. What I find particularly frustrating is when the rush to be first and the desire to write up things as dramatic swamps out saner analysis.

Adam’s right about the hunger for “new”, but it can be fed by ways other than jumping up and exclaiming the world has ended / is about to change forever because a social network moved a menu item.

For example, an awful lot of changes and services get huge initial coverage and then almost nothing as if it’s the instant judgement that’s the only sensible one to make, rather than waiting a while and collating how things have turned out into a “new” (yes, you can call it that) report.