by Adrian Keys

Created on: January 11, 2007   Last Updated: May 01, 2007

Blogging is one of those intriguing byproducts of the "second coming" of the Web. There are over 60 Million Blogs being tracked by Technorati, with a Blog being created every 7 seconds. I blog myself and also have a keen interest in other Blogs and what the Publishers are saying.

TechCrunch is one of my favorites and I try to at least visit and post once per day. Since yesterday, in response to Michael Arrington's post - What is the definition of a Blog - a debate has raged on. In the piece, Michael debates the recently published stats for the Google Blog and the wisdom of Google's decision not to allow comments from Readers - at least up to this point.

The post maintains that Readers' comments are very important to Blogs and even suggests that the official meaning of a Blog should be revised to exclude Journals that do not allow Reader's comments.

I must say the post heightened my curiosity to the point where I felt compelled not to accept my fuzzy concept of the meaning of a Blog for granted anymore - so on to my favorite online Dictionary and Encyclopedia of sorts - Answers.com. According to Answers , a Blog is "a website that displays in chronological order, the postings by one or more individuals and usually has links to comments on specific postings".

Ok, no fuzziness here, the operative word being "usually" , so after all, Readers' comments on a Blog are not a must. Still not satisfied I pulled up my next favorite reservoir - Wikipedia. On the specific subject of Reader's comments, Wikipedia's position is that "the ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many Blogs". However, still very importantly, it does not suggest anywhere that it's the Readers comments that make a Blog, a Blog.

TechCrunch, in the piece, fingered Seth Godin who according to Technorati operates the 19th most popular Blog, although by the time I checked Technorati, the Blog was ranked at 20th, which highlights a crazy aspect of Blogs - the unpredictability of their rankings. (I will elaborate some time soon).

Mr. Godin accepts the position of other Bloggers to allow Readers to comment but was vehement about not allowing Readers to respond on his Blog. He bluntly states: "bloggers who like comments, blog on. Commenters, feel free. But not here. Sorry".

I see and understand Mr. Godin's point. According to him, comments would simply affect his posts. He would " feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in

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