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BlogDay 2008: A Short Interview with Nir Ofir

BlogDay 2008: A Short Interview with Nir Ofir

August 31st is “blog day”, according to Nir Ofir, who started BlogDay in 2005. The whole idea is to spread blogging and help people find new blogs, a noble cause if any. It could be a really big thing, is in a way, with the blogosphere’s lust for more readers, and its fascinations with specific days, be it talk like a pirate or naked CSS day.

So let’s find out what’s behind Nir Ofir’s BlogDay, shall we?

What is the BlogDay project, and why did you start it?

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. I started it in 2005 in an Israeli bloggers meetup. I noticed then that blog readers usually stick to their regular blog reading list and don’t go and search for new blogs to read. The overflow of information is the main cause for that – it is just to hard to find new good blog to read. I decided to create a day in August 31st (its in BlogDay logo) for bloggers to recommend other blogs to their blog visitors. With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

You started the BlogDay back in 2005, how have it evolved since then?

Well, Every year more and more bloggers and readers in the celebration. BlogDay instructions were translated to 21 languages by volunteering bloggers. Last year, “blogday2007” key word generated 400,000 new pages in Google. This means that this is not just a social kind of project but it is also, technically creating a reshuffle of blog hierarchy in search engines which helps more new blogs to climb through the web hierarchy.

I have noticed also that blogs and blogging are becoming a very popular in emerging countries like Peru, Cambodia and Poland.

Have any of the mainstream media picked up the BlogDay?

Not really. In the US and western countries BlogDay was mostly mentioned in the blogosphere centered meetups, social networks and major blogs. In Central America, former East Europe and Asia, mainstream media did mentioned it. I mostly excited about how a simple idea that was created by an individual is spreading around the world un controlled. It’s fun! Oh, last year I got BBC radio in the UK do a piece about BlogDay.

What are your hopes with the BlogDay project?

Well, when I started this in 2005 I didn’t had much hopes. Some of the time i was even afraid that peope I know will think that this project is stupid and a waste of time but, I keep my naive approach. I thinks that if a small percentage of the people that celebrate BlogDay truly feel that they are part of something big in that day, my hard work is really worth it.

I hope that people will not get tired about blogging and will keep changing the way we communicate by driving new energies and blood to the world of social media.

I’d like to thank Nir Ofir for taking the time to answer my questions. If you would like to know more about BlogDay, or perhaps even participate, visit the BlogDay website for instructions and badges. If nothing else, you might fins a few new blogs to read!

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