Posting, Subcribing, Tagging and....LINKING!

This is actually about a week late (it’s a funny concept that things on the internet can be “late,” isn’t it?), but I wanted to comment on Fred Wilson’s post about the blogosphere.

Basically, Fred describes the expanding “blogosphere” in three ways: posting, subscribing, and tagging. I agree with him on all three points, and it’s fairly well thought out. His definition of a “post” is free-form and broad (like it should be), and he’s correct in how tagging has become a (ridiculously?) important part of tracking the posts that are out there.

But I think he missed a beat: Linking.

Now it’s true that the internet itself is essentially based on hyperlinks, so saying that blogging is can seem like claiming that monitors are held up by the floor because desks are, too. But I think that links entertain their own important purpose in the blogosphere. They’re the bread-and-butter of posting, browsing, and ranking.

A zillion posts a day follow this simple format (see current post):

Someone’s saying something (link)here!

I disagree. I want to say this! And here’s a (link) to someone else who agrees with me!

And these links (along with blogrolls) form the basis of “browsing the blogosphere” — which I do quite frequently. Many people are probably in the habit of cruising their newsreaders once or twice a day. The way I expand, modify, and update my list is by clicking. Over half of the blogs I currently read appeared on my screen by following post-embedded links. It’s like a high-profile trackback.

Also, links are a measure of importance. In my mind, this blog will start being a decent blog when people start linking back to my posts. If I get a thousand views per day, and no linkage, it probably means I’m boring.

This is why I link generously. It’s the blogging form of “props,” and it helps people discover new blogs.