This is just a short break from the series I’m writing to say that the “Next Blog” button located on the Google Blogger toolbar is worthless.
When clicking this thing, you should be taken to a random blog each and every time. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs, if not more, on the Blogger system. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t get an unique blog every time I click that “Next Blog” button. Instead, I’m sent to the same 7 or 8 blogs over and over again. Half aren’t in English, and the other half aren’t interesting or I wouldn’t keep “Next Blog”ing past them.
I mean, seriously. If I click “Next Blog” and the blog I see is something I don’t like, and is also a blog that doesn’t have the toolbar, I click the “back” button and then click the “Next Blog” button again. Why is it that if I do this, I’m taken back to the same blog that I just navigated away from? Then why does it happen 3 times in a row or more?
Also, why is it that I’m taken to blogs whose written language is in something I couldn’t even guess at? Blogger incorporates language settings, so why aren’t they being made use of?
The “Next Blog” button has a lot of potential as a content discovery method, but only if the way it’s implemented is greatly improved. Every few months I give it a whirl, hoping for some improvement, and every few months I’m disappointed.
Google is a giant and the world leader when it comes to search and content discovery, so why are they failing at such a simple implementation of technology? Is it really that hard to set this thing up so that you get a different blog every time you click it?
Bradley Farless 