Globe Still On Internet, Now Making Links

The Globe has brought us extremely timely reports on message-boarded and blogged-about crime, as well as incisive commentary on Facebook. Now, the paper has realized that there are a lot of local websites out there, and decided to publish a piece listing 64 scintillating selections.

Though the feature was obviously meant to recognize local sites, the tone sometimes felt a bit flippant, as though the Globe (perhaps fearful that India will take over its operations) wanted to assert the superiority of newspapers even while acknowledging the existence of websites. For example, in describing the fabulous Beyond Boston Chic, the Globe said, "Proprietor Martine Severin does little more than carry a camera in her meanderings and ask the notably dressed to pose when she finds them." Perhaps the intention was to emphasize the simplicity of the blog's premise, but it came off as condescending and dismissive. Dan Kennedy is accused of "bloviating beyond his expertise," and the banter on Hollywood in the Hub is called "promotional and sophomoric." It's not exactly the most laudatory article ever.

Still, the Globe has assembled a pretty good collection of Boston blogs, and we don't say that just because we (and some of our writers) are on it. But the list is definitely missing several great local sites. We'd like to have seen The Food Monkey (recently featured in USA Today), Beantown Bloggery, Basegirl, Cursed to First, Surviving Grady, and of course all of our writers' sites on there.

Globe commenters point out a few other sites that the newspaper missed, including Hub Review, The Mirror up to Nature, ArtSake, Parkway Boston, Lucic Crew, BeerAdvocate, and urban development site ArchBoston. What sites do you wish you'd seen on the list?

Image from eurleif. Lyette Mercier contributed to this post.