Blogs

What do you think?

[Oaf357]

Why do people have web logs?

What is the purpose of blogs?

Are they a wasteland of repeated information cluttering up the world wide web?

Are blogs a method of creating a personal home page for people that don't know how to create web sites and know nothing about web design?

Tell me what you think about blogs and why have they taken off in such a big way.

[chiyo]

1. To me Web blogs are a natural development of the unique capabilities of the web as a form of media. They bring together many of these unqiue or easier things - like instant publishing, interactivity in comments, hyperlinking, "personal" factors, and most of all no major publishing set up costs. It is at once showing off your scrapbook or diary, and expressing yourself.

Now with dedicated free software to help publish them where one needs no knowledge of HTML, people can publish online diaries so much easier,cheaper and faster. So their popularity is a mix of ease of use, and demand from people who want to publish what they think or maybe strive for some feeling of online community.

2. Someone web blog may just be for 1) themselves, 2) fmaily or friends or 3) a wider public.

3. To me blogs will become an accepted dedicated sub-media of the web.

4. Lately SEOs have experimented with using them due to inbuilt factors that help with SE positioning.

5. Its impossible to "clutter" up the web just my putiing something on line. Every web site has their own niche, whether it be a dempgraphic, a family, or an interest group. Its only when web sites are exposed beyond they demographic they a) we designed for and/or 2) deserve, though Search engines and such, does the Web become cluttered. So far there is far more clutter from affiliate sites designed to make money than there will ever be from Jo Blows personal diaries, which dont usually have a commercial motive, but more ego, sense of communication, need to communicate, hobby types of motivations. Of all the blogs on the internet, I estimate 99% have been semi- or totally abandoned after authors lost interest. Hopefully these will wend themselves out of search engines, from lack of updating, less inconing links over time etc.

[dcheney]

The only blog I've followed (maybe once a week) is an old friend who was at school far away. I was an easy way for him to let all the old gang know what was going on.

[mattur]

The other side is the blogging software. Stuff like movabletype can be used to implement a straightforward CMS solution for a small-ish site. Since you can customize all the templates and turn off blog-type functionality no one would be able to tell the site is actually driven by blog software.

imho this is fascinating 'cos blog software is gradually evolving towards more advanced cms functions, allowing far cheaper CMS systems than if one uses "traditional" i.e. expensive CMS systems. The big CMS companies must be worried :)

[HughMungus]

Are blogs a method of creating a personal home page for people that don't know how to create web sites and know nothing about web design?

There's your answer. "Websites" made easy.

[chiyo]

yes, we use perhaps the most popular blog software to drive our news section of one page. You have to really separate sites that 1. use blog software to develop it, to 2. sites that use blog software for blogs or are blogs but dont use software at all. They really are two completely different things when it comes to the function of the site.

[peewhy]

I think Blogs are just platforms for rants.

Before one wrote letters to the daily papers, but people don't use quills anymore - so they blog instead!

[peewhy]

In fact that was a blog!

[evening]

blogs don't have to be just about rants. my husband uses his as a way to keep up his writing skills while unemployed (his is the site I "manage" for him - we're both new to this, hence my presence here). his and sites like Atrios and DailyKos are places where people post about things that they think are newsworthy but may not be big in the official news world (although some news organizations have their own, like The New Republic). sometimes they just say, hey look at this link, or they might give more commentary (like what my husband does). it's a great way to keep up on what's going on, on what you might have missed, in a specialty setting. for these, they are left-leaning political sites, great for political junkies/professionals. I think it's a great tool for this kind of thing.

[aravindgp]

It's a natural progression of web for me.

I was wondering if this is made available to quality people like my uncle/prof who keeps writing extra-ordinary literature.It's very easy for him to keep things in uniformed way, don;t worry about running after publishers or printers.He can simply invest his time in writing.

It's just that it makes web publishing much more simpler.I am sure there would hundred's of people out there like my Uncle.

[trillianjedi]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld evening!

Blogs are just another factor of the web that the search engines will need to keep up with.

I have no doubt that they will have an effect on the algorythms used at some point in the future.

A few of them contain useful content.

TJ

[peewhy]

A lot of academia and reports are blogs in many ways, its a good idea too just to keep your hand in.

[cfx211]

Blogs get a bad rap because the majority of bloggers are in the 14-21 age range, and their interests are a lot different than news writers and other people who want to know "what this blog thing I keep hearing about" is all about.

There are plenty of good blogs that fall under the news journal/travelogue style of writing, and I think people have had difficulty accepting them because they are used to getting information in the standard news story format.

I think that as the younger bloggers grow up and start writing about stuff other than boyfriends or having to write papers and as the public at large realizes that there are credible news blogs out there, you will see an improvement in the genre as a whole.

Also blogs right now are boxed in by the text format. This will expand soon and blogs will be more worthwhile for that. ;)

[Oaf357]

Boxed in by text format?

Voice blogs? Is that what you mean?

[peewhy]

When a little thought goes into them, images, sub headers, columns etc - they look good - magazine format.

You are write, the homework generation give them bad press.

[mattur]

Why stop at voice? Why not live audio visual streams with everyone broacasting their own channel, commentating on others channels... Note to self: must stop reading Bruce Sterling novels :)

[cfx211]

I mean boxed in by text as in most blog interfaces are just a text box like what I am typing into now. They can support html tags, but you can't stick a photo gallery or a spreadsheet into it.

[Shane]

Blogs can also be used to give voice to the experiences of an individual when there is a wide audience interested in the experience.

During the last war I regulalrly tuned into one chap and read with interest what was said because I believed that there was no spin involved and the material reported was that of the common man (I just want to survive.).

So many hits the server had to be beefed up.

..... Shane