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February 17, 2006
Blog Pimple About to Pop?
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
Slate has another of those "blog bubble about to pop" stories out. (The doll's name is pimple, available here. We are not into grossing y'all out here at Mooreslore.)
As a business story it may be 100% accurate. As a barometer of blogging itself, it's dead wrong.
Blogging is not a separate business from the Internet. Blogging is simply another way of producing a Web site. It brings coherent, regularly-updated Web sites within the budgets of every business, every individual, everywhere.
Blogging can be journalism. A blog can be a personal journal. A blog can be a store. A blog, like a Web page itself, can be anything you want it to be.
So when someone writes "blogging bubble about to pop" and cites a few business case studies involving the creation, purchase and selling of companies involved solely in blogging, I laugh. Because that's not blogging.
The Internet will have a lot of trends going forward, and already has had several. Blogging, as a lead trend, is going to fade, replaced by other trends. Social networking, which followed blogging as a trend, has already become so lame that it's been the subject of a Daily Show parody.) Each of these trends will boom, bust, conslidate and become ingrained in our daily lives, in turn.
The Internet, you see, isn't one thing anymore than blogging is one thing. It's whatever you choose to make it.
Comments (3)
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Steve on February 18, 2006 08:52 AM writes...
I've been consuming blogs for only about 3 years now, but I believe the blogosphere is starting to assume some shape. A number of practical conventions are accepted by bloggers and their readers, and several distinct 'types' of blogs have emerged. Its becoming more difficult for someone to flout these conventions, and we're developing blogometrics for quantifying the sphere of influence of a blog or a group of blogs.
The questions I have is where are we going from here? Will blogging become like radio in the early days, an unmanageable cacophony of noise requiring government regulation? Will big businesses discover a way to usurp the power of pursuasion that blogs have on the Internet? Or will the voices of bloggers grow louder and clearer until they drown out everything else?
Permalink to Comment2. Amy Gahran on February 22, 2006 05:22 PM writes...
Well said, Dana.
I've always thought it's problematic to try to make a business out of a buzzword -- at least, a business that will last more than about 6 months or so.
After a while, people will start to realize that "blogs" aren't the point. The point is conversation and connection.
IMHO, of course.
- Amy Gahran
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3. Amy Gahran on February 23, 2006 11:39 AM writes...
Hi again, Dana.
You got my gears going on this one. Blogged you back. See: "Blog Bubble Bursting? Get a Grip"
- http://snipurl.com/mv96
Thanks,
- Amy Gahran
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