BloggingOn 9.6 - Vlog is to Internet as Public Access is to Cable TV

Rocketboom, rocketboom, blech. This one receives my vote for most-likely-to elicit-akward-and-inappropriate-comments-from-Bill. It's the video equivalent of double-b, but it probably owes much of its success to one visual element in particular: A.C. (not Slater). She may be generically attractive (think: the new token Republican aide in the Bartlet White House), but she is undeniably ANNOYING! Too bad her stunted and unintentionally-weird delivery distracts from the usually interesting content and nicely streamlined format of the site. Definite points for clealry displaying links to all of the stories covered.

My main issue with Rocketboom is the hype. Look, this site is NOT competing with MSM. Most (if not all) of their stories are not "real news". This is another characteristic they share with the double-b: Rocketboom is more or less a clever collection of weird and intersting stuff to see on the web. There is no real "content" here.

Colin says: is "Rocket Boom," just kind of SNL stripped from its corporate moorings? And didn't the MSM make that possible by letting SNL become such thin, puny gruel?

First of all, SNL hasn't been funny since the early 90s (with the exception, perhaps, of the blue oyster cult/cowbell sketch). Second, this is like comparing A.C. to Dennis Miller, which would imply that Rocketboom is, or was at one time, funny. It is not. It is akward and unbearable (more like Weekend Update with Kevin Nealon), and I would rather just click on a list-o-links to interesting vlogs than have to suffer through Cogdon's horrible delivery.

Speaking of akward and unbearable... Vlog Soup ("Sir, I know John Henson, and you are no John Henson") doesn't fall far from the tree (Steve Garfield - "Steve (pause) AT (longer pause) Stevegarfield (short pause) DOT COM" - is a Rocketboom "correspondent" right?). Steve's delivery also lacks a certain relaxed and natural quality (read: human) that would go a LONG way. The stuff he finds is sometimes interesting, but mostly banal. Again, I would much rather click on the links than watch the rundown.

The episodes are much better Max-Headroom-style.

In the end these two are not the actual content, just the content providers. It seems we might be better off just getting it ourselves.