OK, I admit it. I read gossip sites. But not all gossip sites are created equal. For example, I don’t read Perez all that often. Actually, I rarely read his site. I just don’t find it all that appealing. Rude, in fact. However, the one site I frequent the most is Jezebel.com. This site, which isn’t just about celebrity gossip, but social and political commentary as well was launched in the spring of 2007 and owned by Gawker Media. It is not only a blog, but almost a social network. Not only can readers comment on posts (they update practically every hour between 9 am and 7 pm Eastern), but they can follow and friend other readers. You just can’t do that at Perez. And Lainey Gossip, while very interesting, is very one-sided, since she is the only who can contribute to the site. Commenting about Lainey’s posts is left to the world of social networking sites like Facebook.

Blogs shouldn’t be places for reading and reading only, since the point is about interaction. Today, many online newspapers and magazines run on a blog format, allowing comments from its readers. Social bookmarking is equally important. Comments and social bookmarking are even more important on celebrity/social/political sites. At Jezebel, everyone seems to have an opinion about everything, whether it’s about the original post or something another commenter has written. In fact, for us regulars, it’s almost like family. We agree, we disagree. We sometimes even fight.

Because the topics on Jezebel aren’t about celebrities 100% of the time, it’s more refreshing. The posts are smarter and definitely not snarky and more civilized. It is definitely the site to go to for those are interested in topics about women’s rights, politics, beauty myths around the world. You’re not likely to find postings on, say, the Manitoba Greyhound incident or female investors in the Middle East on other gossip sites, but you might at Jezebel. And with the Olympics opening in Beijing today, it’s very likely that there’ll be posts about not only the Games, but also on China and the environment as well as their human rights record. These posts would likely spark more than 100 comments in a span of half an hour or less.

Though Jezebel is female-centric, its variety of topics attracts a wider audience and a better-educated audience. I would guess that most Jezebel readers either have a post-secondary education or are going to have one. Jezebel readers are also more likely to have a LinkedIn account than MySpace (unless they have it just to share Wall Street Journal articles) as well. People like that tend to have an informed opinion topics and their comments tend to be in complete, intelligent sentences rather than random “firsties” or “OMG! That’s just soooooo dumb” comments you see at Perez.

Of course, there are those who aren’t too happy with Jezebel, especially when the posts deal with race and culture. Some ethnic-based blogs have criticized the site for being too Eurocentric (even though many of the commenters and at least one editor are non-white). However, topics like this do spark debate. These are the topics that make Jezebel different from other sites. Sure, people’s prejudices come out, but they can appear on any site. Even ethnic-specific ones. At least it gets people talking. It gets people to exchange and share ideas. And there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that. Some people think we need to be all PC about things, but that’s not realistic.