Rant: Holiday Gift Guides and Best of 2007 Lists

Posted by junger - 11/30/07 at 12:11:51 pm

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It's that time of year — when news slows, consumers open their wallets, and media outlets publish their holiday gift guides and Best of 2007 lists.

Those lists are so annoying.

Every media outlet publishes some kind of list like this. And every media outlet thinks that theirs is the be-all, end-all for their audience.

News flash: it isn't!

Nothing More Than Sold Space?

There are so many of these guides published, and nearly every one in a given category has the same items.

The audience is legitimately skeptical of their usefulness: over at AVS Forum, a site where we syndicate our content, a post on "Best Gifts of 2007" was recently deleted because the members view it as "nothing more than marketing" for the items — that the space was sold.

I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm not partially responsible for this. We at CE Pro have the "Top Stories of the Year" and "Must-Have Products from 2007," but to a degree we have to do it.

It's almost expected, both from the audience side and the publishing side. But why?

Starting Arguments: Good

Bethesda Blog makes a good point about these lists: they're great for starting arguments. In the interactive nature of the Web, arguments are great!

Users get into it, become invested in the discussion, and come back to the site. That's exactly what you want from your audience — to feel a part of the discussion and become a regular.

But are these guides really worth publishing? The Best of 2007 lists add a bit of nostalgia and are good for boosting traffic to older stories, but beyond that, there's nothing compelling about them.

Maybe it's just me being cranky, but I'm tried of seeing these guides.

What do you think?

(Image from CNet's Holiday Gift Guide, the top Google search result for "holiday gift guide")

November 30, 2007 | In Tech | No Comments

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Jason Unger