Comments on: New Mac Blogs

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:56:35 +0000

nik: Yes – I enjoy his blog, and really enjoyed the latest Google Calculator command-line tool.

By: nik

nik — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:21:47 +0000

Yet another pro blog is the blog of Greg Miller, Google software engineer:

http://unixjunkie.blogspot.com/

By: puiz

puiz — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 02:16:44 +0000

My comment is a bit long, so I posted it here.

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 14:13:34 +0000

I thnk the Surfin’ Safari weblog is one of the best examples that comes to mind of an Apple-endorsed public blog, allowing developers to speak directly to the world.

It’s not as if WebKit engineers (who work for Apple) aren’t privvy to private information. So they have to be careful about spilling beans, too. It’s just because of the Open Source aspect that I guess Apple is more approving of that.

And yes, Steve Jobs’s blog is the best example of all a company being straightforward and direct with the world :)

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 13:30:48 +0000

How would you categorize the WebKit Surfin' Safari blog?

By: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 11:07:00 +0000

You don't even bother mentioning my blog? I know I'm not doing anything really crucial for mankind like removing VisualBasic support from Microsoft Office, but, dude, I did invent the iPod. Have you heard of it?

By: Schwieb

Schwieb — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 02:22:33 +0000

I’ll suggest that to our blog team, Daniel. We’ve tried to make our area of expertise obvious in our individual intro posts, but those do scroll off the front page over time.

Thanks for the links, both to MacMojo and my own site… :)

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:29:16 +0000

Well I think with Google and Microsoft (MacMojo at least) we might have two exceptional examples. Of course, the Google Mac Blog has yet to really take off but I have a good feeling that Scott Knaster’s involvement will keep it “true” to blogging spirit. Also, I might have already drunk too much of the Google Kool-Aid, but I think their corporate identity is still young and idealistic enough to keep it more honest than it would be at a more mature company.

Which is why I think Microsoft deserves real respect for MacMojo. I know you said you hadn’t really checked it out much, and to be fair I mostly just skim it. But the posts there are mostly associated with real names, associated with msdn profiles that contain links to external sites, a photo, etc. When the company puts a real identity along with the employee bloggers, I think they’re less likely to willing spew bullshit into the loudspeakers. Everybody will know it’s them that’s being shady, not just the company.

If anybody at MacMojo stumbles upon this, I think that one great improvement would be if you could list the “Occupation” in parentheses after the author’s name in the summary at the bottom of each post.

By: Scott Stevenson

Scott Stevenson — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:06:34 +0000

But I do think there’s a good PR in expressing a line of communication directly from the employees to the public

In theory, I agree. It’s just that it doesn’t seem that many corporate blogs are really direct from the employee. They’ve either been written or massaged by PR. That’s certainly PR’s job, but I don’t like the idea of letting readers think it’s candid if it’s not.

I suspect you were alluding more to its not being a project where shrouding it in secrecy would have a great business advantage

You’re right, of course. :) I meant the secrecy is not strategically vital.

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 20:49:06 +0000

Hi Scott – I got another comment offline along the same llines: that the corporate blogs suck. Well, to be honest I don’t find any of them as interesting as private blogs, so I have to sort of concede that point. But I do think there’s a good PR in expressing a line of communication directly from the employees to the public. If the blog really is written by employees, as in the Webkit blog case, it can really help open up the operation and build empathy among users.

You might end up regretting that comment about WebKit not being a strategically vital project. I’m sure lots of people would beg to differ! I suspect you were alluding more to its not being a project where shrouding it in secrecy would have a great business advantage.