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What is the point of Audio Blogging?
I don't really see the point of Audio Blogging. This is where a web-logger talks into a microphone or a phone and records an audio message instead of writing out what they are trying to get across. This comes across as a waste of bandwidth and time. I get net radio but audio blogging just seems like a excessive use of a cellphone
I know the old verse about a picture being worth a thousand words but when you record an audio post you are recording just that, a bunch of words. Unless you use an audio post to deliver something really spectacular I think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. There is the dead time that it takes to dictate something, the extra bandwidth, the reliance on a multimedia plug-in or file format and the lack of RSS syndication and cross-platform support.
I type way faster than I can dictate to someone and I do not have the gift of radio where I can talk for a long time without a pause.
I am not saying that all audio multimedia is bad on a blog. If you had audio clips of a musical performance, a new car engine or even your cat meowing that it would be very cool to have a common audio media format like MP3 linked from your post.
Just because you CAN use a multimedia format in your blog does not mean that you should with out a good reason. I blame the movie 2001 on our mass cultural fantasy about talking to computers.
Jake at April 12, 2004 
WebDev
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Comments
I think it's just a phase and a novelty. When people who do use it (ie. Wil Wheaton) give it up, it'll slowly decline.
Speaking of which, I'm coding up a moblog supplement for when I get my new camera-cellphone.
Posted by: Matt at April 13, 2004 1:34 AM
Some people may prefer audio blogs, but I like to just read them.
Than again, if a celebrity had a blog, it might be cool to hear them talk about whatever in a tiny bandwidth stream of 28kps or so.
Posted by: Jonathan Bennett at April 13, 2004 5:42 AM
I used LJ phone post when I didn't otherwise have access to a computer. Even now when I have SMS hooked up to a few weblogs, whatever you have time to say is preferable to 160 characters minus the length of the email address, if you have a long message.
I totally agree about audio qua audio, though. I wanted to do a couple posts like Jeremy Hedley's ( http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archives/cat_audio.html ) and the Quiet American One-Minute Vacations, but a regular cell phone is designed to filter things like that *out*; they use real recording devices.
Posted by: Mark Paschal at April 13, 2004 9:45 AM
I hate audioblogs. A lot of my daily favorites switched to doing them and I quit visiting.
Besides why would I want to stop my Winamp shoutcast to listen to someone blog?
Posted by: Kevin at April 13, 2004 11:18 AM
well, actually my friend has used it when he had no access to a computer at the time - and it was good timing because he just saw mel gibson and peter jackson give a live interview so it proved it's worthiness right then and there. although it's not useful all of the time i do think it has a proper place and time. i think it's cool so long as it doesn't dominate a blog.
$0.02
Posted by: gringo at April 13, 2004 2:25 PM
Never heard of audio blogs before. Sounds useless! But thanks for pointing to that excellent 2001 explanation site! I never understood the movie and it is so slow that I didn't felt like watching it a second time. ;]
Posted by: drcolossus of dataleak at April 14, 2004 2:52 AM
Yup, I agree with Kevin. AudBlog MP3s are suck.
If someone is gonna do audio blogging, it should be posted as a link to a pop-up Flash file. That way I don't have to waste time DL'ing it on their main page, and it can be played within the web page.
Posted by: PromoGuy at April 15, 2004 8:45 AM
