In the early days of web 2.0, bloggers wore their distinction from stodgy news organizations as a badge of honor. The news organizations are proving the bloggers were right by keeling over. As they die, the blog/news distinction has lost its meaning. Today, after WaPo exec Katharine Weymouth yesterday
said she wished Post ed's could write headlines like the Huffington Post, USAToday.com
ran the flip headline, "Obama says nation needs more nerds."
News outlets are trying to be more like blogs, and good bloggers are building credibility by acting like news men and women.
But Google and other search engines persist with the distinction. Today, if you ran a Google Blogs search on Eric Hjerpe's move to Kepha Partners, you'd find a link to
XConomy's story, but not the
post I broke the news with in Mass High Tech early this morning. Conversely, a Google News search picks up our article, but leaves off the XConomy post.
So
blog readers miss our article with news on Kepha's strategy, and quotes from Hjerpe and Kepha founder Jo Tango.
News readers miss a link to an
incisive column Hjerpe contributed on XConomy last summer.
Why shouldn't it be easy to get a quick look at both sources? When will Google discontinue their disservice to readers, and drop the meaningless blog/news distinction?