The Blog Council. The name and logo make it sound like they should reside up in a white tower overlooking the rest of the blogosphere – only speaking when they notice a dispute that is too big for us “regular” bloggers to handle. What it is in reality is little more than a “book club” for corporate bloggers.

Corporate bloggers are what they are. Some are good, some are evil, but one thing they all share is the fact that they have an agenda. While most every blogger has a bias of some sort (like myself towards Apple and Google and away from Microsoft), when a blogger has an actual agenda, to me it seems less like blogging and more like PR work. It can make for a good read when they serve as the public face of a company to respond to something else said in the blogosphere, but it’s hard to trust just any out-of-the-blue post.

And yet their numbers are only going to grow. Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins has it right when he says:

So basically, the big corporations are just now starting to realize exactly how obsolete they are becoming in the new social space that is the Internet. They are starting to get the (correct) impression that bigger is not always better. They’re starting to realize that the millions of dollars they spend on massive international video and print branding campaigns are just as effective as Google’s decision to create a solid service and a colorful logo instead of marketing themselves in the traditional sense.

This strange new world confuses and frightens them. And in typical old guard fashion, rather than consulting an expert, they create a committee, give it an important sounding name, set meeting dates for the committee, and will end up spending most of their efforts coming up with new ways to explain why the old ways of doing things work best.

Exactly right I think. Nothing more to be said except for a sarcastic: All of us peons are really impressed with your high council, thanks for announcing it in such a grandiose manner! I’m going to go back the regular blogging now though because my neck hurts from having to shout up to you in that tower.