What's a Blogroll really for?

This is an interesting question and I wonder if it is one that really occurs even to most bloggers. After all, the purpose of a blogroll should be apparent. To list those blogs that you like, find commonality with, and want to keep up with.

Unfortunately, as with most things web-related, the original purpose of something online usually, at some point, becomes separated from its later (perhaps inevitable) pragmatic purpose. Thus, we see very often that blogrolls are often nothing more than reciprocal link exchanges.

Ok, I probably shouldn't get started on reciprocals. This is a hot topic for debate among SEO types and may forever continue to be...Are reciprocals dead?, Are reciprocal links devalued?, Are reciprocal links penalized by google?,etc, etc, yadda, yadda, who gives a flip.

On this subject, I will say that I personally don't care for reciprocals in most cases because the individuals who ordinarily approach you for link exchanges----A) maintain low quality sites, B) maintain sites that have nothing to do with your site and C) make me automatically think of the google-inspired phrase "linking to a bad neighborhood". What do I with letters requesting a reciprocal link exchange? Into file 13 with no consideration whatsoever.

Blogrolls, in too many cases, have simply degenerated to this level. They exist to algorithmically pump up the sites of friends and to pump up one's own sites (this is known as running a network). Blogrolls that are compiled by bloggers for this purpose typically have little value. Why? Mainly because the blogs that appear on such lists are not chosen because the owner of the blog has an intrinsic interest in them.

Which brings me back to the question of what a blogroll is really for. In my case, it's for this reason: to make it easier for me to get to the blogs that I have found, over time, that I like to read. No other reason. If people who come across my blog find that they like the blogs on the list, great. If it diverts that all-important web traffic away from my site, fine as well.

So, I've decided that I need to start compiling a list of blogs that, lately, I find I like to visit.

BTW, here are the latest definitions that have been added to the Health Nutrition Dictionary:



Phytosterols

Vitamin Deficiency

Mesomorph

Endomorph

Ectomorph

Adenosine Triphosphate

Body Mass Index

Stretch Marks

Hypertrophy