Dan Gillmor: Google Buys Pyra

Dan Gillmor: Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time
Dan Gillmor had the original weblog post with news of Google buying Blogger. In it, Gillmor gives a good definition of weblogs:

Weblogs are frequently updated, with items appearing in reverse chronological order (the most recent postings appear first). Typically they include links to other pages on the Internet, and the topics range from technology to politics to just about anything you can name. Many weblogs invite feedback through discussion postings, and weblogs often point to other weblogs in an ecosystem of news, opinions and ideas.

Gillmor also succinctly notes weblogs' growing influence:

Blogging was moving mainstream even before this buyout. Several weblogs draw a large readership, and bloggers demonstrated their collective power to keep an issue alive even when the traditional media miss the story, as former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott discovered to his dismay late last year.

After posting the Google-Blogger news, Gillmor added a valuable list of links to commentary on the purchase. Gillmor's list:

First and foremost, here's Evan's posting about the deal on his personal blog.

Cory Doctorow's analysis (thanks for the kind words, Cory...blush) strikes me as dead-on.

Weblog pioneer Dave Winer hints (I think) about more such deals and hopes Google will do the right thing by the overall blog community. Me, too.

Ben and Mena Trott, of Movable Type fame, offer some ideas on what Google hopes to gain from the deal.

Meg Hourihan has kind words.

Nick Denton asks: "Will Google use weblog links to improve Google News?" I asked Google's spokesman roughly the same question, but got no answer. Stay tuned, he said, because the company is just starting to figure out how it's going to use this stuff.

Anil Dash doubts that it's a good fit.

Rick Bruner calls it an excellent fit.

Azeem Azhar envisions (among other things) an interesting media play.

Shelley Powers sees centralization of data, not just search.

Jeff Jarvis thinks Google is too smart to play favorites in blog searches. Note: Jeff's company was an investor in Pyra; smart folks.

David Weinberger suggests that Google must now show it isn't a stupid big company. Yes.

Matt Webb thinks Google is building Memex.

Chinese bloggers discuss the news, in Chinese, of course.

Jonathan Peterson suspects VCs are getting hungry about now.

Metafilter thread.

Slashdot thread.

Henry Copeland is sure Dave Winer will win this Long Bet.

Mitch Ratcliffe remembers a conversation last fall when Google's Sergey Brin asked all kinds of good questions about blogging. I have a feeling that lunch table will be a footnote in the official history of blogging; it'll certainly be in the book I'm working on...

To emphasize again: The above list is Dan Gillmor's work, not mine.