Sunday, October 30, 2005

Weblog Usability Article

Jakob Nielson writes about Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes.

Interesting points that I haven't really thought of before, and ones that I think I'll take steps to change in the upcoming future (I smell a New Year's resolution!).

I started this particular blog a year ago with one goal of remaining semi-anonymous. Apparently, that didn't work anyways, because this blog is the #1 MSN search result for my name (and #2 on Google, due to an old page that I created while in college being older, and therefore, more relevant in Google's eyes). Anyways, the article mentions that posting anonymously does nothing to increase your reader's trust in the content. This is exactly why Scoble also lists his cell phone number.

The other issue that has me thinking is the use of Blogspot.com for hosting. Blogger has been a decent service provider, albeit missing a few features that I would like to see. But, the article states that it's only time before *.blogspot.com authors will be viewed as novices, sort of like what you think when you see a @aol.com email address. So, I'm seriously thinking about my own domain for the blog and whatever else I end up doing next year.