darren rowse Archives - TheWayoftheWeb

In a slightly odd pairing, political eco figure Al Gore and successful professional blogger Darren Rowse both had microblogging news to unveil while I was off on vacation. And the less significant part for me personally, is that Al Gore has his own Twitter account.

More significant was the news that the man behind Problogger and one of four behind the B5media network, has launched TwiTip, a new blog dedicated to Twitter Tips.

Uh-oh.

Darren’s being pretty open about the process and techniques he’s using for the new blog, but the fact he’s already seeing up to 2000 users per day, and has over 1300 RSS subscribers within a few days due to his previous success and fame could be a bit depressing! I have to admit being tempted by Web 1.0 Darkside thinking a little.

Web 1.0: ‘Well, the game is over now. Him and another couple of A-listers will just hoover up the entire audience.’

Web 2.0: ‘Every new blog/person is a good thing for attracting and engaging more people and providing new perspectives.’

Web 1.0: ‘But he’s got a larger audience in a week than 140char has after 6 months.’

Web 2.0: ‘Doesn’t matter. It’s just a reason to ensure I work harder on making this place different and valuable enough that it succeeds in it’s own right and stands out – and maybe Darren will send some traffic by!’

At the end of the day, I wish Darren all the success he’ll doubtless get, and it hasn’t changed my thoughts on the future state of the site too much – initially it looks like he’s continue his tactic of providing great tuitional and instructive guides etc, which will be just as useful to me as other people – and I was already intending to take this blog in a slightly different direction anyway. Especially as I like to play and break new apps and sites, rather than feeling like I’m writing a game guide.

The only thing that does disapoint me a little is the fact Darren is publicly asking for submissions for Twitips and has already received loads of content, which is doubtless coming from Problogger readers who see a chance to get more coverage for their own websites and blogs – it might have been nice to have seen some recognition of the sites already here like Microblink, Twitterapps, Twitterholics, Twittermaven, etc.

And obviously if anyone, A-list or otherwise, fancies being involved in a site dedicated to microblogging, you’re always welcome to get involved here!

One of my favourite sites, Problogger, changed the look and feel of the site recently.

I like to give any site redesign or change a little time, as it’s easy to just dismiss or attack the unfamiliar. But I’ve had a sense of unease since the redesign, and there’s a simple reason why.

The old design came across as a site created by someone (Darren Rowse) who had knowledge and passion for the subject, but more than that, it came across as a personal blog, which worked well for the content and subject matter. It felt like Darren was posting something just for an individual reader, despite the fact there may be thousands of them reading the same thing.

Now, however, the site has been optimised for expansion and cleanliness. Unfortunately it also seems to have lost a part of the personality from the design, although it’s still there in the writing and tips. One sign of this is that Darren’s profile info is now right at the bottom of the page, rather than up top.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fantastic site and resource for bloggers, and it’s not like the new design isn’t attractive or useful in other ways. But it’s interesting that a more ‘professional’ or ‘corporate’ design can remove some of the charm of a site, particularly when it’s a blog…

Al Gore and Darren Rowse – both show mainstream Twitter

Coming to terms with changes