Another Blog on the Web, Part I

...a blogspot in the online album...blogger, what else did you write for me?

I'm skipping the links today, tired as I am from laying awake in sweltering steam heat last night, wondering why anybody lives around here at this time of year. Massachusetts has two seasons: snow and steam, and we get about a week between them when it's pleasant.

This year, it rained for that week.

One thing I wasn't losing sleep over last night was this blog, even though every marketing company in America seems to think that should be my top priority. My inbox is full of this stuff.

Do you have a blog? Do you update every day? Are you syndicating in RSS XML to My Yahoo! and updating your posts 10 times a day? No? Then you're doomed! Everyone else is doing this! What's wrong with you? Why do you want to fail? Stop reading this and go write in your blog now or you'll never see a customer again!

I paraphrase, but the tone is accurate. Just once I'd like to see someone send me a flirty marketing pitch instead of this gloom and doom stuff. "Hey, nice site you've got there. Maybe I could come over and we could talk about it."

Instead it's Blog this and Blog that and Blahg Blahg Blahg. I remember when we called them "diaries." Life was simpler back then, in the halcyon days of 1998.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, only that this is the latest marketing panacea in a trend that predates the jpeg. Remember when everyone was going to need Java to succeed? Or when B2B was going to kick B2C off the Web? Or when wireless was the most crucial enterprise deployment platform? How many successful sites got to be that way by jumping from trend to trend? And what is it about e-commerce that makes everyone think we need a new set of rules?

There's a Chinese restaurant on Route 1 in Saugus, Massachusetts, called the Kowloon. It's been open every day since the 1950s. The food's good, the drinks are wicked, and the Polynesian Room has to be seen to be believed. The businesses around them come and go, but they stay open, serving the same great food and drinks. They've proven immune to every diet trend and culture change. You'll be waiting an hour for a table on Friday or Saturday night.

They did all that without a blog. Go figure.