Using Technorati and Google I keep tabs on who’s linking to me. Usually it’s people I know, occasionally it’s new people which is always nice, sometimes it’s spam blogs filling up their sidebars with randomness, occasionally it’s Chinese or Japanese sites, which is intriguing. This week I got one from the Telegraph, specifically from this blog post about a performance of the St Matthew Passion at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s South Bank.
Which, as you’ll be aware, is a subject that’s about as close to my heart as collecting beanie babies. So why did Igor Toronyi-Lalic link to me in my post? Because back in 2003 or so I took a photo of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the snow which just happens to be the first result when you do a Google Image Search for the building.
Which doesn’t answer the question, why?
I’m guessing that Igor Toronyi-Lalic doesn’t do his own linking. I’m guessing a sub-editor or more likely an intern does it. I’m also guessing the style guide for the Telegraph blogs states that a blog post has to have a certain number of links. This is good practice. However, those links should actually be of some use. Far be it for me to lecture on this subject to a major news outlet but if I wanted to explain to my readers what the Queen Elizabeth Hall was I’d probably link to the South Bank Centre’s page for the hall or, given that’s not too descriptive, perhaps Wikipedia’s entry which is pretty comprehensive and even has photos which are better than my blurry effort. These links add value. That’s what links are for.
And for the record the Guardian blogs can be just as guilty of this.