Social Networking in the Blogosphere: Blog Roll vs. Links in Posts

Which is a better indicator of blog networking: your blog roll or comments and links within individual posts? There is a debate going on between a number of social networking researchers in an email discussion group that I belong to. Some people have argued that blogroll links are not as good an indicator of actual blogging practices than links in postings and comments. While others have said that links in blogroll convey more information than casual links embedded in postings especially in political/politician blogs. Neither side seems to offer real data on their claims, just their own experiences.

To me they have different uses and meaning. It is not a question of one being better than the other. I have over 100 blogs in my blog roll. These are generally ones that I want to have a quick link on an ongoing basis. They are ones that I am more likely to refer to more than once. Frequently, I linked to them for a particular post and liked them so added them to my blog roll. I would say that all those in my blog roll have been linked to in at least one individual post. However, all those that I linked to are certainly not in my blog roll so it is more selective. Now, I am not always diligent. There are blogs that I like and have not placed in my blog roll through over site. Sometimes I am surprised that they are not there and add them in when I discover this.

There is, of course, a third category: blogs that I subscribe to through RSS. This is an even more selective list than my blog roll. I try to have everyone that I subscribe to also on my blog roll but I am not perfect in this goal. In the midst of all discussion Jan Schmidt offered some interesting data from a paper on German bloggers that he published in German that is discussed in the English blog post, Survey “Wie ich blogge?!”

Jan reported through the email dialog that he found that 55.2 percent of all blog authors have a blogroll. On average (median), they include 16 (10) blogs. Older weblogs (> 6 months) have larger blogrolls (avg 20, median 15) than younger ones (avg. 9, median 6). 34% of the bloggers state they modify their blogroll once a month or more often, 45.5 % a couple of times per year, 20.4 % even less regularly. Frequency of blogroll update correlates with age of weblog, with younger weblogs updating the blogroll more often.

Both findings indicate that a blogroll gets build primarily in the beginning of one's blogging activitates, while authors build their networks within the blogosphere, but is a less reliable indicator for ties among "older" bloggers.

In answer to the question, “Where do the blogroll links point to (multiple answers possible)?” Jan found the following:
Weblogs I read regularly: 85,0 percent
Weblogs run by friends of mine: 60,3 percent
Weblogs dealing with similar topics as my own: 38,7 percent
Weblogs which link to my own weblog: 25,6 percent

In my case I continue to add to my blog roll as I discover new ones. I tend to not delete any once they are there unless I know that the link has become dead. What do you do with your blog roll and how do you feel about the issue of blog roll vs. Blog post links?

Jan also looked at RSS in his survey. In response to a comment I made about the need to llok at RSS usage, Jan reported that in his survey 40% of all participants said they use a RSS feed reader, 41.7% don't but have heard of RSS, and 18.3% have never heard of RSS at all. This is a very useful work and I hope it gets into English to broaden its audience.

Comments

[Noel Guinane]

We're pretty new so our blogroll is being updated frequently since we're just building it which I think is true of most new bloggers and is consistent with Jan's report. The other findings were interesting, especially about RSS. That's a pretty low take-up, but I have to admit I don't really use RSS either. I check into about ten regular blogs per day, sometimes less if I get involved in a good conversation, and more if the posts I'm reading link to other blogs which most good posts tend to do. I do read blog post links, but since we don't have Trackbacks, I need to either been told about them via email or occasionally check into Technorati to see who is linking. Maybe there is a better way of doing it.

[jozef Imrich]

There is a website called 'who links to whom' - a brilliant site indeed!

CODA: How to get Robert Scoble’s attention: http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20060221/2970/ Scoble invites developers to excite him

http://www.rexblog.com/2006/02/22#a9687
Are newspaper columns about blogs dying dying?

[Jozef Imrich]

Ouch, Link to links I forgot to provide above:
http://wholinkstome.com/

[Bill Ives]

Jozef - Thanks for these links. You always bring interesting stuff to my attention and it is apprecited. I will an explore them. Bill

[Jack Vinson]

I'd say the blogroll vs. links question really depends on the type of blog you run, and how you define a blogroll. My original understanding was the blogroll was other blogs you read, but I suspect that has morphed into "other cool people like me" or "please link back to me, since I have your website mentioned here." They may also be status indicators: If I link to X, then I might be positively associated with X.

I have about 50 blogs that are on my "don't miss" list for various reasons. But I read over 300 blogs when I have time and inclination. I just can't see posting all 300 of these to a blogroll. (Technically, I could just post one or two folders, but most tools don't make this very easy.) I've pulled out a blogroll in favor of a list of "recent links" in my sidebar.

[Bill Ives]

Jack - good points. especially the evolved uses. There are many uses for a blog roll or list as you said. It is not a one dimensional thing. Since I use my blog as my personal knowledge management system, I use my blog list the same way. These are blogs , like yours, that I want to be able to get to quickly with one click, sometimes to read or sometimes just to pick up the link for a post.

[Denham Grey]

Feed list vs. blogroll

http://www.bloglines.com/public/dgrey

Bill I'm thinking feedlists are fast replacing blogrolls. What links, trackbacks and comments have that is very different from a blogroll or feed list is some measure of reciprocity.

Feed lists and blogrolls seem to be mainly one way, but you can get a better feel for the strength of a relationship and the sharing of interests by tracking cross-links, and comments.

[Bill Ives]

Thanks for your comment Denham. I think for the most usage of getting consistent access that you are certainly correct. I use feed lists and blog rolls differently. I read through the feed lists but use th eblog when I want to quickly check a site or simpy to grab the url for alink in a post. The trackbacks and links are a better way to see the active dialog. The iQuest tool is a good way to look at these relationships.