Blogger vs Google III
I am predicting various effects of the acquisition of Pyra by Google:
a) The *.blogspot.com weblogs would ping all the popular notification sites, ie weblogs.com and blo.gs, as well as their assoicaited ones: blogrolling.com, blogstreet.com etc.
b) Access statistics would be available to the bloggers.
c) Google is not going to push their content through their search engine, but surely is going to provide the means to make these content makers much more relevant, or at least increase the chance of being noticed. Expect a campaign.
d) Shirky's power law discussion will be much more relevant with the increased arrival of new bloggers to the Bsphere.
e) Although entrance barriers will be diminished, getting noticed is going to be much more difficult. Expect to be inundated by comments within the next six months.
f) Us slackers that blogged about war, power laws and Sesame Street quizzes will find increased competition for attentions, forcing specialization or at least a distinct theme for the most popular sites.
g) Expect all the free services to which you were accustomed to start charging a price for services.
h) New blogging celebrities, as instapundit and the like fade from poublic attention, due to increased fierce competition.
i) Continuing on Joi Ito;'s description, expect an increase in local blogs (creative groups).