WordPress Tag Surfer – the new time consumer

I used to spend hours each day reading about the latest technology and gadget news and well written features. Then a few weeks ago Gizmodo ruined its layout. It suddenly became difficult to keep up with the hottest gadget news, browsing a site harder to navigate than a double-decker bus. It wasn’t just me – many complained about this change to an un-broken format, but the Gizmodo team seemed reluctant to admit that all the time and effort designing this “improved” layout might have been in vain. I can understand this feeling (like how Facebook never revert on their design changes despite all the “bring back old Facebook” groups) but sometimes you have to admit your users know best if your whole userbase is at risk of deserting after such a drastic change (They must have lost 2 or 3 times the new traffic they gained from the iPhone 4 leak publicity they gained last year). I’m not sure it’s the smartest move.

Sure I could visit other sites but I always loved Gizmodo the most as I thought they had the most varied news, clearest product reviews and – most importantly – best unique features which set them apart from rival tech sites (The kind quality features I would love to publish on my blog). If these guys didn’t value their core user base enough to give them back what they want, maybe I should look elsewhere for someone who would value my time? And with my own blog now in full swing who better than fellow WordPress bloggers for the job?

With “Freshly Pressed”, Blog Subscriptions and “Tag Surfer” it’s easy to lose hours not even leaving this site, reading about your own personal interests written by like minded people. Everyone here wants their blog to be read, generate hits and be discovered, so you find surprisingly professional writing for a bunch of amateurs doing it in their spare time. You get real opinions on these blogs rather than held-back views that well known companies or websites carefully construct so they don’t get in trouble with anyone. Full, descriptive articles are written on here that are not restricted by any 140 character limit imposed by micro blogging sites like Twitter.

Yes in many ways, WordPress blog browsing could develop into my new media and news consumption tool of choice. It is early days yet of course but I really applaud WordPress.com for integrating the reading/writing experience so well that it is very easy to consume interesting, funny, professional and free articles each day using this platform.