So Steve Rubel, one of the thought leaders within social media, has decided blogs are no longer a viable platform for anyone looking to have a strong online presence.
As a result, he’s making the leap to Tumblr, driven by the belief Google is paying more attention to social signals. For whatever reason, Rubel thinks blogs are passe while Tumblr is a more attractive and logical digital option. In the process, he’s deleting hundreds of posts from two blogs.
To be honest, I think it’s dumb. It’s like chasing the hot, new girl (or guy) at school because they have six fingers rather than five. It doesn’t make the new girl/boy better, just different.
Keep in mind Rubel proclaimed two years ago that he was jumping away from blogging to embrace Posterous because life-streaming was the new way to go. Either Rubel has a commitment problem or he’s searching for digital nirvana.
Don’t get me wrong, change is good. But chasing the digital dream by jumping from service to service strikes me as a Don Quixote-like exercise.
I see a few things wrong with Rubel’s thesis. First, trying to play to Google’s search focus is like trying to hit a moving target. As much as Google is the dominant player, it changes the rules and tweaks its algorithm on a regular basis. In embracing Tumblr, Rubel is playing a game of digital whack-a-mole.
Second, Rubel doesn’t control Tumblr, Tumblr does. If Tumblr decides to update or change its service, Rubel has no control. In contrast, Rubel controls his blogs. It’s a personal digital asset as opposed to an online service. Rather than own a digital home, Rubel has decided to rent an apartment.
Again, it’s a decision he thinks makes sense but strikes me as way too idealistic.
I wish Rubel luck but I’d bet you a dollar he’ll be jumping on something new in a year or two.
GigaOm’s Mathew Ingram has more thoughts on Rubel’s “scorched earth” approach.
I recently made the same decision as Mr. Rubel. Not because of Rubel, I’ve never heard of him before now, in fact, but I can obviously sympathize with his decision. You say that
“If Tumblr decides to update or change its service, Rubel has no control. In contrast, Rubel controls his blogs. It’s a personal digital asset as opposed to an online service”
I think you’re confusing what Mr. Rubel’s asset is. Mr. Rubel’s asset is two-fold.
1. The actual content that Mr. Rubel creates, text, videos, pictures , etc, is always his, as laid out in the terms of service at tumblr.
2. The address of that content, which is also under his control.
Those will always belong to Mr. Rubel, no matter what tumblr decides to do in the future, provided he follows sane practices, and
1. Backs up his content (tumblr actually makes this quite easy)
2. Points his own domain name at his tumblr site (like I have folkwolf.net pointed to folkwolf.tumblr.com)
The assets he wants are always his, and unlike you, he does not have to worry about such things as
1. Constantly updating wordpress to keep up with the security flaws
2. maintaining your own web server and database server
3. Worry about internet connectivity issues.
4. Cleaning out comment spam
and the list goes on. These are not Mr. Rubel’s “core competencies” This is not why he has a blog in the first place. Hell, I’m a network and UNIX Systems administrator, and I do this stuff for a living, but for my blog I’d much rather let tumblr take care of it.
And, as well as take over all of the mundane system administration and programming duties that are part of running your own blog, tumblr automatically plugs you into a network of people (almost a social network), that you can follow, and that can easily follow you.
Just a few things to think about.