Lately, blogs have been criticized by the press for a number of reasons. I think the core “problem” is that anybody can start a blog, and anybody can say whatever they want. That sort of thing tends to upset people.

The press will often accuse bloggers as being sensationalist. Bloggers will publish on a whim – even in the absence of substantial fact! Any time there is a media event, the blogosphere will swarm with theories and ideas. From the outside, a lot of these ideas seem fairly ignorant. Maybe they are.

I predict it will get worse before it gets better -- the end result, however, may be worth waiting for. I imagine a world where information and ideas flow freely and directly to where it needs to be. Even if this vision is only partially true in 2050, they way we utilize information will change our lives.

Back to these “sensationalist” bloggers. Blogging is a young technology. Blogging has not yet matured, so naturally the system wouldn't be expected to operate with a high degree of maturity in 2005. Look at the early newspapers. Where do we think the term “yellow journalism” came from?

Traditional media and blogging will converge in my lifetime. We might call it by some other name, but you'll recognize the format. People will write stories, coalesce facts, and perform interviews. Machines will route, sort and archive the information. It will simply be done in a more efficient manner then it is now. Very efficiently.

My next step for today: It's a holiday, so that means MindSay gets another feature built :) I'm implementing a better algorithm to control the “related tags” feature of the site. Adam has long been asking for a way to get related tags onto the home page, and this improvement is a prerequisite for that, so he might just get his wish.