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There's No Such Thing As A Blog

It's always nice when people agree with you, particularly when you've taken a contrarian position. I've long maintained that blogging is over-hyped, and that it's an evolution of traditional web pages, not a revolution. The big change, as much as was one, was a lowering of the barriers to entry, which combined was enough to cause a proliferation of individual writers to pop up. Bloggers, as opposed to say, 'Webpagers', did not have any html coding ability, nor have to get their own domain name, nor have to use a cumbersome process for updating. Add in an increasing openness to sharing and communicating aspects of one's life, particularly among the young, (fostered largely by the internet and technology) and one has a recipe for the blogging expansion. So I was happy to read this in Advertising Age, (via BoingBoing) which essentially is another attempt to illustrate the false blogging/traditional media dichotomy.

We've found it increasingly difficult to draw a distinction between web logs and older online media as the two converge. Are CNet reveiws traditional media? What about gizmodo's? Both are highly read; both have a strong impact on brand reputation. The only real difference is that CNET has more of corporate face, but even that characteristic is blurring.

This is not to say that CGM is over-hyped; it's not. There's an enormous amount of information to be gained from individuals, and that information's value is increasing regularly as internet research and word-of-mouth becomes an ever-greater factor in purchasing decisions. But the day when I stop hearing about how blogs are going to change the world can't come soon enough.

Posted by Jeffrey Feldman on February 8, 2006 at 12:34 PM | Email this post Permalink

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Comments

I agree to a point; I think that a blog is a website, but it is a specialized type of website.

The thing that makes modern blogs so successful, in my opinion, is the commenting ability - the ability for the audience to talk back. That is what makes blogs like Daily Kos and Crooksandliars (2 of the top 10 blogs according to Technorati) so successful.

Posted by: LP | Feb 10, 2006 7:58:23 PM

Yeah but: we should make sure that we separate the technology from what it represents. Certainly the technology that differentiates a blog from a regular-old-web-site is fairly minor.

But--for a number of reasons--a blog is a more open invitation for people to share their ideas. That's what's revolutionary. It could have been through skywriting; it's irrelevant. What matters, I'm sure we all agree with, is the perception and what it means to the average person.

Posted by: Gary Stein | Feb 10, 2006 8:11:09 PM

Your point is well taken, although I disagree with your headline.

I would agee that blogging is over-hyped. But I don't think it is overrated. That's the difference between an evolution and a revolution.

I recently read that of the Fortune 500, only 3% - 4% have developed a 'corporate blogging strategy'. If it was a revolution, it would be 10 time that amount.

Posted by: Jonathan Trenn | Feb 11, 2006 11:05:04 PM

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