If you happened to check Memeorandum over the holidays, you may have noticed that the home page was decidedly emptier than usual; makes sense, as most folks were "off the grid," spending time with family and friends. New items in my aggregator and in my search feeds also slowed to a trickle, as most everyone had taken a break from blogging.

It struck me how different this was from traditional, "mainstream" media. You can bet there will never be a day the New York Times throws up their hands and prints, "Not a whole lot going on today, why don't you go play with the kids." There's always something making news, whether it's newsworthy or not. Kind of disingenuous, if you ask me.

On the other hand, we're building apps that have the unique quality in that they mirror real life; from them you get the sense that the Web is a big room, in which everyone is engaged in a giant, interconnected conversation. On some days, no one shows up, and so there's nothing to talk about. And that's fine, because that's the way life is, and that's they way it should be.