Well, not really.
Yes, the headlines look good but the details don't really support the hype.
"The inexorable rise of blogging has been officially acknowledged by the Association of Online Publishers, which for the first time is including blogs in its annual awards." says Brand Republic
But when you get to the nitty gritty we find that the four shortlisted blogs are "Emap Performance Interactive's Q4Music.com blog, The Guardian's blogs, the BBC's inclusion of amateur video footage on the London 7/7 bombings and VNU Business Publications' Newsgator aggregation tool."
Emap? BBC? Guardian? What happened to the non-commercial options? Ok, so the Guardian and the BBC did fine jobs on July 7, and the Guardian's set of blogs have all been excellent from the start...but how about letting a few of the plebs in on the action?
Don't get us wrong, this isn't sour grapes, but isn't the whole point of the blog 'phenomenon' that it's all about 'the rise of the amateur'?
Oh well, maybe next year.
