How Yahoo killed MyBlogLog

Unbelievable, the MyBlogLog service announced another redesign of their website today! – unfortunately, again without new features. The update is followed by the updated design of their widget in February.

As many know, MyBlogLog is a blogging network, subscribed users get a “blog community” to which other registered users can subscribe to. The idea is that the community get connected to the site, and come back for further reading. The service is well known by their widget that members install on their blog, which shows the latest viewers, including name and avatar.

MyBlogLog development seems to have slowed down after the acquirement by Yahoo. The redesign is nice but quite frankly, I do not think the announcement is that exiting. The service screams for an update, as MyBlogLog did integrate the aggregation of friends in feeds, but lacks interactive implementation in the widget. Who needs MyBlogLog anyway? While MyBlogLog simply lost the chance to create a community, it seems that the service got stuck in between three better services.

1. Google Friend Connect does experiment with new functionality by integrating live chat’s under their Widget
2. Friendfeed is best in aggregating user data from different sources
3. CoComment allows users to follow up on their previous placed comments.

MyBlogLog had a first move advantage but never took their model to the next level. My advice: Take ‘inspiration’ from the three sites mentioned above, and focus less on the design. But for now, Alexa, seems to report that social blogging site lost half their visitor reach in just one month… Where do you think MyBlogLog is in one year?

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