The Encyclopedia Britannica has opened a blog which may be a sign that Britannica is looking at user generated blog discussion content as a possible way to battle the popularity of Wikipedia as a trusted reference source.
The discussions on the Britannica Blog are led by experts in their fields and guess what?….
Like most blogs you can leave a link in your comment!
Yes, they are using NoFollow in their comments.
But don’t let this stop you from participating in the discussion especially if you have a relevant site to their content because these Britannica Blog posts will prosper and attract major traffic.
And that’s traffic which will visit your site and perhaps link to your blog.
More on the Britannica Blog :
Britannica Blog is a place for smart, lively conversations about a broad range of topics. Art, science, history, current events – it’s all grist for the mill. We’ve given our writers encouragement and a lot of freedom, so the opinions here are theirs, not the company’s. Please jump in and add your own thoughts.
I wonder if they let bloggers sign up – if so, who will be the first to write on Britannica about SEO?
Wow. At first glance the Britannica blogs are very well done, and put most other blogs to shame. Not only are the posts well researched and written, but the comments are thought provoking, intelligent and calm.
I’m so used to reading petty flame wars and uninspiring comments, I welcome Britannica as a positive new window on the web.
Thanks Cayley,
I’d also like to add that by encouraging comment participation on the Britannica blogs, I’m not encouraging link spamming.
But, as I said, if you have a resourceful and relevant site to the subject which is being discussed, you will do only good for your site and the Britannica blog by adding to the conversation with thought provoking and knowledge filled material.
Plus, you’ll get a nice shiney link for a reward :)
They should have the kid who did all the commercials for them in the 80′s do all the blogging. Anyone remember that kid? Saw those commercials so many times his face is burned into my psyche.
Do you mean the kid who looks like Cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch?
Hi Loren,
As you probably know, WordPress adds a rel=”nofollow” attibute to all links in comments by default. Based on your comments, we’ve disable that now.
By the way, the “Encyclopaedia kid” commercial can be see at http://youtube.com/watch?v=HkBxl8Cq-fI. If we can get ahold of his report on space, perhaps we’ll publish it on the blog.
WordPress adds a rel=â€nofollow†attibute to all links in comments by default. Based on your comments, we’ve disable that now.
EB, this is great that you have removed the â€nofollow†tags on comments! Once the word gets out you will have a much more active blog. Comment moderation will keep spam down, as you want to keep the high value users that are already actively using your site.