Amit at Digital Inspiration finds that 4.5 Million Blogger blogs still have the default sidebar "edit-me" goodies attached. In super linkbait mode, Amit suggests that this is laziness, and Nathan goes a step further and calls these folks idiots.... OK, I'll bite...

Admittedly, leaving these things in your template isn't the route to stratospheric blogebrity, & some might even argue that a default blogger template is equally mundane. Freshblog recently highlighted the relationship between time spent blogging & increased geekiness / tech skills, suggesting that as time passes, at least some of these sidebars will see some love & get some links.

Let's take 1/2 a step back here, though, and acknowledge that part of the power / purpose of the platform is that you shouldn't need to be a geek to have your say. Maybe at least some of these folks aren't lazy or idiots, or lazy idiots, maybe they're just focussed on their message. It is also reasonable to assume, I think, that a reasonable number of these virgin sidebars are splogs, and that those particular site creators aren't interested in making their sidebars pretty. The fight goes on in that quarter, and an incisive comment on Matt Cutt's blog once again highlights the Google dilemma of keeping search, adsense and hosting under one roof.

Perhaps we could see this count of unsullied sidebars as an indication of the popularity of the medium as much as an indication of the user's mental energy? As the title of this post suggests, this is also validation of the audience for modifying Blogger. Let's keep offering great mods!

via Inside Google, where there's also a comment that speculates on Future Blogger, with a Google Pages style drag and drop editor, & no default sidebar HTML....

Filed In: search, splogs, spam, blogspot, blogger, blogtech, webtech, google