I don't know about you, but I've been getting quite a few new hits from Blogger's "next blog" feature. So much so, in fact, that I thought I'd give it a whirl myself, to see what the big deal was. After all, isn't it supposed to encourage mixing in the blog community? It conjured delightful images of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy at the Netherfield ball. Or better yet, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler dancing the Virginia reel, the folk dance most popular in America from 1830 - 1890, where all the couples mingle by switching partners.
So, I mustered up my best blogging brilliance and clicked the link on my navbar. The first blog featured a post about a new addition to the family. Since they were complete strangers, I felt a little awkward and quickly moved on to the next blog. Another baby post. Click. More babies. Don't get me wrong, I love babies, but mine are grown and I've not yet entered into the world of grandparenthood. I gave up. Until the next day.
More hopeful this time, my cursor wandered up to the navbar and timidly clicked on "next blog". Maybe I would encounter someone who shared my fondness for woolly socks, opera, or browsing dusty secondhand book shops? The first blog was a cat blog; every post a cat. Okay, well, I like cats, but I don't live for cats. Click. Kittens. Kitties on the header and sidebar; lots of kitty awards. Click. More felines. Was it something I said? I don't recall posting anything about cats, or babies, for that matter. Twelve successive cat blogs later, I gave up.
That's my uneventful experience with "next blog". It certainly was not the "reel" experience I was looking for, Virginia or otherwise. I guess you could say it was un-reel.
Have you tried the "blogs of note" feature?
ReplyDeleteThose are usually rather interesting.
I haven't clicked Next Blog in ages and should probably try it, but the truth is that my experience was similar to yours. Did not find much in common with the blogs it took me to and my own. Generally, I find it more fruitful to click on the blogs being followed by the bloggers I like. Although there is not enough time in the day to pursue all those wonderful leads as much as they deserve or I would like. Don't know how you get around so much with so many followers, friends and fans.
ReplyDeleteI just saw Jeff's comment and agree that 'blogs of note' can often point in interesting directions. But as a former "blogger of notee" (or is that "blogee of note"?) you probably already know that.
Jeff, blogs of note are usually interesting or unique. In fact, Life at Willow Manor happened to be a "blog of note" way back in December of 2008!
ReplyDeleteI thought I'd try the "next blog" thing, since I was getting so many daily hits on my sitemeter. I thought maybe they had added a few new bells or whistles.
ReplyDeleteI think browsing through the blog roll of a blogger I love is the best way to find great new blogs.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I was just thinking about GWTW today.
They need to use the word recognition written about rather densely in my latest blog entry. That way you would be drawn to fellow poets, cooks and historical commentators.
ReplyDeleteBlogs of note was where many found willow in the first place.
ReplyDeleteMarc, you're so right. It was almost as if they HAD used word recognition, but I don't remember saying anything about babies or cats.
ReplyDeleteActually, I don't need to find any new blogs. I've already got more than I can keep up with. I was just seeing what the big deal was.
I did that one day last year and encountered a lot of racing/sports and political soap-box blogs. Nothing wrong with those, of course, but I didn't think we'd become fast friends.
ReplyDeleteIf one can be glad at another's discomfiture, I am glad about the babies, and felines if they moved you to find this lovely clip for us.
ReplyDeleteThank you Willow.
I haven't tried the "next blog" feature; I will check it out.
ReplyDeleteJust finished the Burns' documentary on Twain you wrote about several days ago. It was amazing! When I saw it was 3 hours long, I thought I'd need to do some fast forwarding, but not so. I watched every minute and was fascinated. Thanks for another great recommendation. I just love that your blog has such interesting information.
My sister has had a pretty good experience with the Next Blog feature. Mine was more like yours. Mostly family stuff about people I don't know--I felt awkward.
ReplyDeleteI like to click on followers of those I admire most and then those who follow those folks.
I've run into some pretty amazing blogs doing it that way!
Good luck!
The couple of times I've tried to use "Next Blog" I've received mainly Spanish-language ones. I think I'd rather have babies or cats!
ReplyDeleteLoved the movie clip. Reminds me to be careful of what I say, or I could be eating them later.
ReplyDeleteShould I admit I had no idea what the "next blog" feature was? I've never really even looked at the top of my own blog! After reading your post, I went and gave it a go. The first 4 or 5 didn't interest me, then I landed on "where's william" which is my husband's name so I stopped for a moment, the next one was in a language I don't understand but now I'm fascinated with this new toy! Oh Willow, what have you done to my evening?
ReplyDeleteYou are not only creative but ever so brave. I have never gone for the next blog option, however I must say that ealier today when I noticed you were nearing 1300 followers, I scanned recent names. One "Darling" name stood out. I clicked on it, and read a post about Belgian shoes which had me doubled over in laughter. So, my tried and true rule...."If I find 'em hanging out at Willow Manor, bound to be worth while!" paid off once again! Be sure you read that one, girlfriend.
ReplyDeleteLike you, found it a waste of time.I don't go for the Blogs of Note either as they rarely are.I just check out the lists on the blogs of people I enjoy reading and find that the best way to find new and interesting blogs.I also stop following and prune out regularly.
ReplyDeleteLove cats and babies but not all the time and certainly have reservations about advertising babies for adoption on blogs and public photos of private family moments.
FireLight, how did I miss his shoe post? Gotta go see what it's all about....
ReplyDeleteI am still so new to blogging, I would have never considered checking the "next" blog... and now, I now I shan't! (Don't you love that word!)
ReplyDeleteNothing beats ANY scene in "GWTHW"....still a classic, on film or printed page.
Love,
♥ Robin ♥
I've only tried that a few times but stopped when I discovered something kind of foul and creepy. Never again. I don't think it was something that needed to be reported...it was sort of a grey area, but it creeped me out.
ReplyDeleteCatherine
Oh, dear. Foul and creepy? That's enough to discourage me!
ReplyDeleteNicely done with the new design. I like the Frampton you've hung on the wall. "Excuse my tardiness, Miss Kelsey. Have you been waiting long?"
ReplyDeleteI am quite happy with finding blogs the old fashioned way. I can't keep up with them as it is.
ReplyDeleteI used to click on the Next Blog and seemed to get mainly ones from Brazil. Which was interesting but frustrating as Portuguese is pretty much a mystery to me.
ReplyDeleteI adore dusty secondhand bookshops, you should have come to mine :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful header, btw.
One of our young Gen Y Product Manager's @ work knows I blog. One late night after a particularly harrowing day @ an interstate Conference, he opened up his laptop in the Hotel bar, oops Lecture Theatre & introduced me to the Next Blog button. I won't tell you where we ended up in Blogland, but it involved some pretty nefarious activities on some very dodgy Blogs!!! I'm too scared to try it again!
ReplyDeleteMillie ^_^
I am loving your header, Willow.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many blogs I already adore that I really don't have time for more. Particularly as summer is here and I want to spend my days outside more than in.
I don't remember trying to click at "Next Blog" - there are so many blog friends whom I manage to visit way to rarely, much to my regret!
ReplyDeleteI am glad you did the research, now I feel even happier about the community I am already in. :-)
I think "Blog of Note" is great for blogs like yours that offer a variety of interesting subjects and continue to engage a first time visitor because they are like that box of chocolate where you never know what's in it, but you do know that there are going to be very fine morsels no matter what. Blogs like mine are more a tiny niche, not too many people are interested in one city, unless it is Paris! :-)
ReplyDeleteDear Willow, These things are, in my opinion, best avoided. Rather like the plague!
ReplyDeleteWhy this blog is called Manor? I thought that I would found here some info about manors, like this but I found something completly different
ReplyDeleteWillow,
ReplyDeleteI haven't used "next blog" in quiet some time. It was never a very rewarding endeavor whenever I did persue it. Can't recall any that I maintained contact with or even found interesting. Makes you wonder what pattern they configured to determine what comes up?
rel
Ihe next blog feature was updated to bring you to a new blog similar to the one you started from. Obviously that doesn't explain how you ended up with babies and cats in the first place, but it does explain why they continued. :D
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I live in a house that was named "Willow Manor" by previous owners, since the culvert that runs through the property was once a stream bordered by huge old willow trees.
ReplyDeleteActually, the house is not all that different from the Polish style in the link you included. Same wooden shake roof, and the body is limestone and more of an old French country design.
Hello Willow,
ReplyDeleteThanks for twirl around the dance floor! I tried the next blog button a while ago and it did take me to some interesting places that had relevance but I think it can quickly switch emphasis! I admire your enthusiasm.
I have the best luck scrolling through the blog list of blogs I enjoy, but still check Blogs of Note and Next Blog now and then. Feel glad that I found yours, Willow. GWTW is my favorite. I know almost all the dialog by heart from reading the book. It was my mother's favorite as well. Due to a short attention span as a teen, I skipped around from chapter to chapter in my reading and it was many years before I finally found out what happened to Mr. O'Hara. I have the movie but never watch it. But once or twice a year I just open the book anywhere and can get engrossed.
ReplyDeleteOK, so my curiosity got the best of me...next blog...I was delighted to hit on Pigtown Designs, a wonderful blog about decorating and such, next blog, a watercolorist, next another painter...am I seeing a pattern here, I may have to investigate further...thanks for being the brave one!
ReplyDeleteNext blog...
Sweet Repose, well, aren't you the lucky girl?! How did I get stuck with cats?
ReplyDeleteJanice, I'm glad you enjoyed the Twain documentary! It's about time for me to watch it again, since it's been a few years.
ReplyDeleteWhat an adventure you describe on click-this-next-blog! I've tried a few times with about as much success as you report. You must have a lot of blogs to visit already ...you have so much energy, Ms Wllow!
ReplyDeleteThe last time I browsed through next blog I got lots of foreign language ones. But it seems to me I did find an interesting blog there once or twice.
ReplyDeleteOMG Willow, that is hilarious. There are just too many blogs out there about cats and babies, eh?
ReplyDeleteThe process of finding the great blogs is perhaps not so straightforward as hitting the next blog button. I bet if you googled "woolly socks" you'd have a better chance of connecting with like minds.
You crack me up.
Hahaaaa! That's a riot. I agree with Lorenzo--I do that all the time, and find all sorts of interesting folks that way. You probably do that already, too, Willow. I always enjoy looking to see what you've got cooking over here, though. Have a good one!
ReplyDeleteSo here I am on your blog reading about your less than exciting experience - & decided to try it myself, from your blog. Cooking, cooking & more cooking LOL! I think I'll try it from someone else's blog to see if the theme is different...
ReplyDeleteAs I have only been blogging for three months, I hadn't yet learned of either Next Blog or Blogs of Note. I can certainly understand why yours was featured on the latter! Your writing offers beauty, grace, humour, intrigue, history all wrapped up in a woolly, dusty-bookish, operatic skin. Perfection.
ReplyDeleteyou are too funny!.... I love the movie still frame of Gone with the Wind... I must pulled this movie out and watch it again soon!
ReplyDeleteI wish you a "reely" happy day!
:)The Bach
Yes, similar experience. But every once in a while I hit a blog that was interesting (to me) and I would save it to my 'favorites' file. If it was on a subject that rang a bell with me I would also hit the FOLLOW button.
ReplyDeleteNow the second stage is to check out the blogs those people follow. That is where things get very interesting. ATB!
I haven't had a good experience with the next blog thingy either. Heck with it.
ReplyDeleteI like what techo-babe said; the heck with it - but it was worth a try!
ReplyDeleteThis is the scene in the movie that I loved the most - especially the part where you see her all in black and she is tapping her toes!
Marion, I adore that scene in GWTW where she's dressed in her mourning attire and is swinging her hips and tapping her toes to the music!
ReplyDeleteBug, that's a super idea. Click to "next blog" from someone else's blog and see what happens. Hmm...whose shall we pick?
Willow, when I first started blogging, "next blog" was totally random and I found a lot of blogs in Arabic. Now it is more related to your own blog and what you have searched, especially on Google. I can tell when Hubband has been using the computer because "next blog" usually turns up something on medieval armor. :)
ReplyDeleteI have found a great friend this way, so give it another try some random day.
If you click on Willow Manor.
ReplyDeleteThen click on any other blog.
You should be able to see a difference.
Sometimes it is not easy to pick up on. And Willow Manor is like that. There is something about it that appeals to me. Maybe it is the lady. Or maybe it is the poetry. Or the pictures. Whatever she has I don't and not many other bloggers do.
I know of one old lady, probably as old as me but I am not a lady. Anyway, how would you like to get say, 300 to 800 visitor comments on one post each day?
Margaret and Helen
Best friends for 60 years and counting.
Margaret and Helen
I read her post but didn't pay any attention. It was like listening to a speaker you don't really want to hear and it goes in one ear and out the other. This went in my eye and out the other.
Why?
I already knew Rush Limbaugh was a jerk.
Hey, Abe, I need you to be my marketing guy. Gosh. Thank you. xx
ReplyDeleteI popped over to check out Margaret and Helen. Unbelievable!! I can't fathom that many comments in a day. Whoa Nelly!!
I've tried the "next blog" button several times. What I seem to find are blog posts in languages that I cannot read. I can make out posts in Spanish, maybe Italian, but not many others.Should I try again tonight?
ReplyDeleteA blomsburylife.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI gave up doing that too as I got tired of being assaulted with a lazy man's English, as i call it--swear words and foul language incessantly. Too bad as there are some great blogs out there I am sure i would love to know about. instead i simply follow links of sites like yours from other commenters and do the threads that way. Often find treasures that way.
ReplyDeleteand, yes, i totally remember ths blog being a blog of note. That was so wonderfully surprising adn delightful. I went, "Hey!! i know her". hee.
ReplyDeleteGlad blogs of note is working again. I got sick of seeing the marrakesh one up there. LOL.