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Wired has posted an already-controversial article about how blogs are “so 2004″, and how services like Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr even are here to replace them. Writer Paul Boutin says:
Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.
Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.
Update: Now that this article has had some time to circulate around and collect more discussion and more thought, I have to come right out and say, the notion that blogs are obsolete is a ridiculous one. There have certainly been some valuable points made about the problems with blogs, but just because there is room for improvement, does not mean that they’re dead or dying.
I would even go so far as to say that they’re just getting started. Yes, there is plenty of worthless content out there. I would personally say the same thing about television, but do I think television is dead as a medium? No (Granted, I do think there is some big change coming for TV courtesy of the online video revolution, but that’s another discussion entirely).
One reason why blogs are in no danger of extinction, is that their content is entirely “on demand” – meaning if you don’t like a blog, you don’t have to read it, and you can move on to another one that you do like. You can subscribe to the ones you enjoy and get all the content you want, and if you don’t like the content from one of those at any point, you can simply unsubscribe and stop reading it. If you have any complaints about a blog, then you have the choice to go elsewhere. Why is that a problem? Why would that signal the extinction? Because “elsewhere” could be Twitter or Facebook? I don’t think so.
Back to my original article:
Obviously, people have some things to say about that. So let’s look at some responses from bloggers:
At PureBlogging, I personally said: “Blogs are not obsolete. You know why? Because I still read them everyday. I still write for them nearly everyday. And so do countless others (that probably includes you). If you ask me, blogs are more relevant than they’ve ever been, because they are more mainstream than they have ever been.”
Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspiration says: “The advice published in the Wired story is equivalent to asking mom and pop stores to close shop as there’s a new Wal-Mart store in the neighborhood. True, the competition increases but both entities can still peacefully co-exist and survive well.”
Eclectic Bill writes: “First, even though there are thousands of professional magazines out there, this has not stopped beginning and amateur writers from publishing their own magazines. And given the long tail of topics out there, there is plenty of room for both the professionals and amateurs in the blogosphere. And I find it a bit ironic that someone who claims that “text-based Web sites aren’t where the buzz is anymore” is writing for Wired.com which is largely text-based.”
Not everyone disagrees with Boutin’s article though.
Canadian blogger Mark Evans says: “It’s been about five years since blogs emerged on the media landscape. There are more than 175 million blogs – many of them well written, insightful and/or interesting but you have to wonder if blogs as we know them have had their day.”
Some commenting on the Wired post itself say things like:
“I agree the blogging community is choked with too much commercialism and too many people trying to be the next big thing. Sometimes I wonder if people wish to have a little advertisements with their blog or a little blog with their advertisements. …”
and
“Yes, you are right, if your goal is to be seen, to build a personal brand, to surf a hype wave, then blogging is passé and it is time to move to other forms of social communication. In fact, and for most people, having a blog was the modern equivale…”
Wired and Boutin no doubt knew that this article would cause an uproar from bloggers, and you have to give them credit for some interesting linkbait. It certainly provokes discussion, and I’m all for that. So let’s continue that discussion. What do you think? After reading Boutin’s article, do you agree with him?
I’m gonna give that article a read. I think there’s no doubt that the blggosphere is clogged with crap, but blogs certainly still have a place. As far as I’m concerned, Facebook and the like are more ‘social’ and informal than a blog. The blog format is more suited to formal presentation of news and opinion with discussion rather than inane banter.
While I admit that most blogging platforms and blogs themselves have become nothing more than a marketing tool, I think that it still has it’s place in today’s web based culture.
There are still hundreds and thousands of blogs online that are still part of the true blogging experience in that they aren’t monetized and don’t promote any items. Those folks blog about things because they enjoy it and it gives them a voice.
I have a number of blogs about various topics that I still read on a regular basis. I also subscribe to their RSS feeds so I can get a snyopsis even when I don’t have time to physically visit.
Is blogging dead? Not in my humble opinion.
You’re right, and I would go further and say that there are also plenty of legitimate blogs that are monetized and provide a living (mostly via advertising) for those maintaining them.
Bloggers shouldn’t stop writing if they have useful things to write about. I agree that some blogs are used to promote companies or products. Those blogs aren’t useful, but the blogs that are written about useful topics are relevant and informative. I read blogs everyday and write about once a week.
It has it’s yay’s and nay’s. I personally couldn’t belive me without my blog now, that’s where I express all my ideas plus the news I find so I can share it with my friends, microblogging only let’s me do once at a time, either give them the news, or express how I feel.
I personally think thoday’s blogosphere is blog + microblogging, you can’t survive with just one, you have to be at different places at the same time…
Very Interesting! If just one article could generate this much interest and start a whole new topic of discussion, then I say "blog on".
I’m gonna go with Brad’s comments-
"There are still hundreds and thousands of blogs online that are still part of the true blogging experience in that they aren’t monetized and don’t promote any items. Those folks blog about things because they enjoy it and it gives them a voice."
Well said! There are several categories of blogs ranging from personal blogs to corporate ones. In the same way as personal blogs give people a voice, corporate blogs provide an additional marketing avenue for a company.
Blogs are as relevant as they have ever been. Mr Boutin’s article for one, proves this.
While there are a lot of worthless blogs out there, there are also some very excellant ones.
In another article here on webpro you mention the redesign of Yahoo to include top blog posts about the categorie of news you are reading, this proves the value and impact of blogs.
Yaho and (Google) wouldn’t have such things if blogging were dead!
Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter are probably used for marketing purposes just as much if not more than blogs. Sure there are sites like sponsoredreviews where blog owners get paid to post about someone;s product or site but it represents a vry small fraction of the blogosphere. Besides I have done tesys and wordpress blogs have always been indexed and ranked better than satic sites. there are so many SEO assiting plugins that help in that regard.
Well, personally I think we should still blog. The purpose of blog is like writing your own diary. So, it is like a kind of release of frustration or just doing some rumbling online. Just like what my wife and daughter now having their own shared blog online talking about Passion of life.
I agree that Blogs are crowded by crap but its easy to distinguish the good from the bad and the ugly… What we are reading now is a blog, so why are we still reading it if we think this is not relevant anymore?
Surely we all know there’s a lot of bad blogs out there but there still a lot more good ones…why?
Because the bad ones eventually stop when the “not so serious” blogger ends writing.
Chris – first, great blog and I really enjoy your work.
As for Wired, this sounds like either linkbait or unbridled emotion driving the keyboard. Blogging has changed in recent years but declaring it dead and old seems like a prediction that human nature is going to change this year.
Blogs can be compared to restaurants where conversation occurs. They can have an ambiance, a personality and they can be appropriate venues for some occaisions and not others. Declaring the written blog dead is like saying all Italian food or all Mexican food is out and only the cool people are eating at the new restaurant.
People like different venues for the same reason they like different foods: they enjoy them. The same people can like different restaurants and eat at different places in the same week. They can have intense busines lunches, hot dates and casual time at a Friday night high school football game. Venues don’t become obsolete because new venues arrive. Thinking of blogging as a technology and not a venue is an identity crisis for the speaker, not an relevance crisis for the venue. I’ve got a ton of people contacting me at InnovativeEconomy.com about how blogging is helping them in commercial and non-commercial ways.
Thanks Shane, I like the restaurant analogy.
Thanks, Chris, for bringing this up. Blogging is not just for self expression. Good, bad or indifferent, blogs are an opportunity to share ideas, thoughts and information.
Besides, content is king on Google so anyone with a web site that they want to improve in the organic ranking will want some ever changing content on it. A blog makes perfect sense.
Also, commenting on blog posts is a great way to get links back to your web site as long as the blog is do follow. By the way, Chris, is this site do follow? Just curious.
Thanks again. Keep writing!
i think the focus of blogs, has been to become more niche and focused, there are a number of blogs that i read occasionally and then their are the blogs that i make an effort to contribute to, and WebProNews is one such blog, that always has something interesting relevant.
if i had a twitter, and hundreds of people following me i would be happy, but with some blogs having thousands of visitors daily, im sorry but it still appears that blogs are important.
Obviously blogging still is useful. People are making plenty of money with their blogs, and there is no reason why they should stop.
The only way I can see blogs going away is if king google decides to stop indexing them. And google owns blogger.com so it’s unlikely. For me, the links generated within the blog that google folows and indexes are worth the effort regardless of whether people actually read what I write. Is it harder to get heard in the blogsphere? Of course. But the little guy / ameteur at whatever can’t get heard in any other format so why should that be a problem? Twitter and facebook, etc. are really not replacements for blogs. I see them more as social interaction devices whereas blogs (although serving that same function) are about self-expression in more than 140 characters.
Aww don’t stop! Then us grey hats can’t search for your WPMU and scuttle footprints
No it is not a ah-ha moment.
More laughable
Blogging is only just getting started.
To say blogging is dying because of all those blogs with poor content out there is like saying we should stop buying shoes because of all those low quality cheap brands out there.
The worth and success of a blog depens on the quality of content on that blog.
If you have great, useful content and post frequently, your blog readership will grow
Not sure what the debate is about now.
"… To say blogging is dying because of all those blogs with poor content out there is like saying we should stop buying shoes because of all those low quality cheap brands out there. …"
No, it’s more like saying: Maybe you wouldn’t bother buying quality shoes if you had to look for days for them, because they were hidden between 1000′s of crappy shoes!
I never understand ‘who’ declares these things…and why anyone should listen to them. For a start, Twitter, blogs and a Facebook profile can all be integrated with each other, (as my sites and feeds are) so they are not mutually exclusive. And it is a very narrow view of what a blog is and why it might exist. If no-one read my blog at all (and gratifyingly they do, in large numbers) I would still keep it, just as a visual and written record of my life, which is important to me if no-one else. It also ignores a vast swathe of largely female based blogs, concerned with crafting, home life, lifestyle, decor, which are certainly not dying and being used as informal networking tools to make friends and promote home based business. Blogs are simply evolving, and breaking out of the original mould; once they were the exclusive province of journalists and opinionists, now they are more mainstream. Is that a problem? Only if you make it one.
Didn’t you talk about a blog sold for $2.2 Million dollars recently?
There’s your answer if you’re looking at value…
I just created a blog on Sanibel Island which provides a lot of information for vacationers that I can’t accomplish providing on my website.
I link back to my website on our vacation rental properties but the blog is written to add value to a vacationer’s experience, not purely commercial in purpose.
The blog, I hope, has good content, engaging photos and frequent updates.
It won’t win any pulitzer prizes or create a devoted following of thousands of readers or be valued at 2.2 milliion dollars ever in its existence.
But if I can offer the service, get more people interested in my properties and in the Island, AND have fun doing this, why not?
Sounds like the fellow that wrote the article is trying too hard to be the smartest guy in the room. Blogging is no longer "cutting edge" but why should that mean it is no longer valuable?
No, we shouldn’t stop blogging, but in Turkey we have to stop. Two days ago with an odd decision of a Turkish court access to Blogger in Turkey is disabled.
Now, all the Turkish blogs on Blogger without their owners own domain name are not accessible in Turkey. Also nobody knows the reason. This is against the laws but who can understand it.
Only one blogger posts something inappropriate and than WordPress.com, blogspot.com … are inaccessible.
We are planning to do something against these but we haven’t decided what to do yet.
Write a blog
Let’s see, a blog is an generated html web page, or pages. A blog is a style of web page. Do away with web pages? I think not. How the web page looks after it is generated is what is important.
Yes there are some blogs that are only spam and ads, but that is already been appearing on twitter and facebook also. like any media, chose what you like, and ignore the rest.
Blogs have added so much to the Internet, a breath of fresh air. Yes, like everything else, the marketers have diluted their value with tons of crap. But once you find one that is valuable to you, bookmark, subscribe to newsletters, RSS feeds and anything else they have to offer. There is passion out there on every subject. Beware the fads, blogs will live forever.
Did you know that this comment form doesn’t work at all in Opera?
But on topic…
Take the most exciting medium ever created (the web), with fantastic opportunities for layout and to combine text, images, audio and video. But then tell everyone that text is the main thing and encourage them to use content management systems, all of which look pretty much the same: two columns, three columns. With limited, difficult and boring options for including images, other media and ads.
A system that prioritises ‘the latest’, regardless of whether that is the most interesting or relevant content that you’ve created over the years.
Ease of use and accessibility for people who don’t want to (or can’t) learn HTML is put before creativity. It’s a system for people who want to shovel content onto pages as quickly and easily as possible.
Surfers are getting bored with so many sites that all look the same. I predict a return to more static pages, with innovative (and tight) design. Yes it does take longer to give every item a different design. But if you’re organised, creative, know what you’re doing and have a system in place, it’s viable and a unique selling point in a world that all looks the same.
If you’re interested in having a longterm presence on the web there is no future using here-today-gone-tomorrow services such as MySpace or Facebook as any part of your core operation. Get your own domain name and hosting.
Yes it may seem as if Facebook will be around for ever. But does anyone remember GeoCities? The place where everyone created a page ten years ago.
The other thing that Myspace and Facebook have in common with GeoCities is the horrible user experience: overloaded pages and servers. People are getting sick of that too.
It’s rather like the banking crisis: there was a period when every rule that banks had operated under went out of the window. Lately we’ve done the same with everything we learnt as webmasters over the past ten years. Creativity has taken second place, pages are slow and overloaded.
For the man in the street, the novelty of being able to write, comment and upload his own videos hasn’t yet worn off. But I predict it will. No matter how easy you make it, creating anything is hard work and the majority of people would rather sit on their *** and consume. I know lots of people will squeal at this suggestion, but I’ve been involved in helping people create media for 25 years. I’ve seen lots of trends come and go, systems promted, and enthusiasm fade away every time, except for a very small core who continue.
The financial crisis can only accelerate this, as many people realise they are making no money from blogging and look towards more profitable avenues.
As for commercialism, if you look at the history of online, and particularly the adult industry (AVSes and TGPs for example), you will see that often something new comes along and eventually it is killed by people who introduce systems that ‘industrialise’ and flood it.
Blogs are changing in many ways. First I think a much needed weeding out of the "All about my crappy life" type very personal blogging. Then changes to the way Google rate us can favour the more web-savvy producer of decent quality content.
Also as someone who has blogged for about 5 years I notice a change in the audience attitude. Though well down from the peak of 10,000 hits a day scored last year my analytics tell me the group of followerrs the humourous and satirical blog has gathered now tend to visit only once or twice a week but stay longer, hopefully to rad several posts.
From my point of view this is a positive trend.
Facebook, twitter etc. are good methods of self expression for people who are really not interested in writing but enjoy the social networking side of the web. The longer and more stuctured and carefully written posts may become a respected branch of literature in which many writers can gain a niche audience and continue publishing because expenses are low.
But I finally started one this month and for me it’s not so much to spread my views but to get more traffic to my main website which is adult related and interest in adult content or topics doesn’t seem to be affected much by what ever else is going on in the world, folks will always be horny..economy or other issues or not.
I don’t have the get noticed issue that much because I have built mty network that I can promote it to directly.
i have had a myspace account for linkback purposes to raise some google rankings a while back and it worked. but sites like myspace, twitter, etc are more commercialized than some blogs i have read. i dont consider myself a blogger although i will make a page on my site dedicated to something i want to talk about but my sites are more than just a "blog" its more of a place where i try to bring fun content to the masses and now and then i have a story or 2 whether it be fictional or true. my sites have ads on the bottom but its a single ad that changes on page load. nothing obtrusive.
but to someone who would recommend everyone join flickr or facebook or myspace to get their comments out there, id say you, sir, are a n00b. dont make me rofl.
I don’t want to be unfriendly, but sorry….this is the worst question I ever heard… from so called experts…! I cant take your question seriously!
I sure hope not, since I just started in April. Additionally, I just attended my first blogging conference last week. I believe that the potential of blogging has yet to be realized. The vast majority of the public still does not really appreciate blogging. Those of us who blog think that it is mainstream. It has not yet reached that point.
The technology is also improving, enabling users to do dramatically different things.
Apart from the technology issues, it really is about the ways in which blogs can be used to advance the interests of the user.
Some commentators called blogging the "fifth estate." It has the potential to provide a voice (and therefore power) to a large segment of society who previously had gone unnoticed.