24 Jul '07
Share your thoughts
What on the Internet isn’t burgeoning or spreading like wild fire, especially if it’s something that lets Web warriors express themselves? Content management software, social networking systems, blog hosting — both paid and free-of-charge — and now newfangled services such as those for video blogging and podcasting have cropped up in exponential numbers.
However, I don’t think it’s merely a case of opportunists jumping in the bandwagon. There truly is a huge demand for various Internet-based services. Let’s take the case of blogging. Since no one platform can satisfy everybody’s peculiar needs, many blog platforms have burst into the scene and are flourishing, each catering to a segment of the global blogosphere. One more entrant: a Blogging Community by thoughts.com. It seems to me that this is a fairly recent development.
I’m guessing this Blogging Community could take off and be the next big thing on the ‘Net. But this will depend on how responsive this service is: the technical aspect vis-à-vis the people factor. If the operators of thoughts.com respond fast enough to growing subscriber needs and demands, the level of acceptance will surely increase just as quickly. And the snowball effect will have begun.
But what will set it apart? When I join a community or an online service (Friendster, MySpace, Flickr, etc.), I stick it out with the provider if I see value in it. And if there is something that makes it unique. There is a good chance many Internet-savvy people think along similar lines.
Well, thought.com’s Blogging Community seems to have gotten off the ground pretty neatly. They offer free blogs hosted at a simple-to-memorize URL, plus you are afforded photo- and video-sharing capability. Even podcasting is built-in. As a community site, members can interact with each other by leaving comments and rating posts and photos. There is also a sort of dashboard where you can have a quick view of latest entries.
The interface is user-friendly enough: it takes only a few minutes to get used to the layout and the navigation quirks (all websites have their own sitemap idiosyncracies). The functionalities, however, are still rather simple — not much granularity yet. On the other hand, I’m sure many bloggers will appreciate its straightforward handling and easy maintenance.
I also appreciate the way that thoughts.com is trying to promote the site. They plan to send winners to Las Vegas and to other destinations every year. The blurb can be found in the site’s About page. In terms of effective marketing, though, I think they would do well to make their promotions gimmicks “noisier”, so to speak.
This is a sponsored post.
