Do People Still Use Web Guestbooks?

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:57:37 +0000

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – Several years ago, almost all personal websites (and many business ones) had guest books on them that visitors could sign. These days, you just don’t find them anymore.

An email from William726:

I have a basic question, I would like to know your thoughts on guestbook’s for a website. Do you think that having a guestbook on a website is a thing of the past or do you think that it can be a cool feature to add? I remember years ago when browsing the web and visiting personal websites that guestbook’s were fairly common,
nowadays they seem to be fading and you don’t see that many around anymore. Maybe this is due to people being spammed but there are great guestbook’s out there that can virtually stop spam all together.

Well William, the fact of the matter is that guest books are pretty well outdated, antiquated and just old. There is much more functionality with blog software, and that’s what most people tend to use now.
As Allan says, with a blog people can make comments on specific posts and ideas. With a guest book, they have to leave a comment or a hello in a general area. That doesn’t invite much discussion.
If you don’t want to actually “blog”, why not install the software, make one introductory post, and then allow comments? The software will be more up-to-date and secure than any guest book you will likely find.
What do you all think? Do you use a guest book, or did you in the past? Do you feel they should be brought back, or left in the dust of yesteryear?

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Do People Still Use Web Guestbooks?

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Do People Still Use Web Guestbooks?