This is the question posed by Marshall Kirkpatrick. Marshall wonders whether the features added by the buttons are worth their aesthetic downside. The great stuff is in the comments, where he goes on to

wonder whether all of these “easy connection” tools are just little levers that only some people will use as part of a blog’s larger connection to the world? Hmmm…

My response is in a comment over there... but a lil' repost never killed anyone. Part of my hack-addiction (and part of what is so great about blogs in general) is that they make information as interactive, adaptable and accessible as possible.... moving beyond the book, if you like. So to my comment on Marshall's blog:

the more levers, the more connections… Easy sub buttons for feeds, easy bookmark links like these, comments, trackbacks, one-click backlinks, these are all tools that integrate a site more tightly into the conversation… The more of these tools you have, the easier it is for the individual reader to make use of the information that you provide in a way that makes sense to them. More levers, I say!

Different readers want to do different stuff with your content. Some want it delivered to their e-mail, others to a reader, & still others want to tag it & stick it on del.icio.us so that they can come back to it later. Some want to see how authoritative it is by checking out the backlinks. Some are moved to respond to it directly with a comment, or to trackback their reaction from their own blog. None of these things are easy (or possible) with a printed page. Bloggy "levers" open up your content to different users and spread your thoughts as widely as possible. To echo myself... More levers!

Filed in: blogging blogtech