Forum Moderators: not2easy
Search on 'greymatter' here, we've made two or three swipes at it. Noah Grey's blogger is the best script I've come across
Noah's no longer supporting GM, if I remember correctly. Moveable Type seems the dominant player - and of course Google's buy of Blogger called in a ton of attention to blogging, and hence new bloggers.
I've looked at LOTS of blog sites lately. In most cases I haven't seen that a 'blog' is anything other than an ego gone rampant, lacking content, class, or anything close to style. It's all about "me, me, me!" What's on my mind! What I think! Look at me!
Well... this hasn't changed. But then again, you could find and replace "blog" with "webpage", set this comment in the mid-late 90s, and say the same thing about all those geocities tilde pages.
Here's a more recent discussion [webmasterworld.com], but I wonder about the overall growing use for pros and businesses. Beyond that though, it's been 3 years that have seen blogs do, well, something, as well as attract more users both layman and professional. What are you doing with blogs nowadays? I've used them as a travelogue, and I've seen non-web-savvy clients have their sites based on MT - usual content and info, but now they can self-update content instead of going through a third-party.
News has become more of a trend too, with reporters having blogs to just headline-savvy joes and janes putting up their own part-fact part-opinion takes on events.
Businesses are taking more note too. This loopy content format suddenly looks more and more like a great way to interface with customers.
Or maybe everyone's still just putting up digital snaps of their dog.
I think you are right on all counts - blogs are seeing application in a very wide variety of business and personal uses.
Today's better blogs are sort of like swiss army knives - by enabling and disabling various options, you can get very different tools. The reason for their popularity is exactly what you cite - non-techies can change and add content easily. Most significantly, they can transparently create new pages that will be properly linked and integrated into the site.
A few of the non-traditional blog apps we've implemented:
- an "advice column" in which experts reply to questions submitted by visitors
- a new products section that allows the site owner to write about the newest products being offered
- a press release compilation in an online press room.
None of these looks particularly bloglike, and none allow the traditional feedback from visitors; they are functioning purely in CMS mode.
