I think they’re also talking about the traditional linkblog, where you just post links with a sentence or so of commentary.
If those have moved from blogs to social media, does that mean that blogs are dead?
Yes, because any other site you call blog could very well have survived as a plain old website with an evolved and polished interface (unlike Geocities which Yahoo murdered). So blogs as we know them are dead (Matt, your blog here is a linkblog, isn’t it? Is it alive in a traditional form or are you just not using Tumblr?).
The examples of the blogs author provide above could have survived as a website with a commenting add-on. They could ultimately have evolved with social add-on. The blogs were just a stepping stone – or a distraction – towards the social web as the internet has evolved by now.
Blogs are not dead. Far from it. In fact, I see the death of Facebook before blogs. Blogging is a way to grow your own personal brand, and in essence, your business. It really depends on how one looks at the web, I supposed. The web in the long run will be moving towards a “everyone has a mini-empire” type of mentality. I mean, why give Facebook your talent and money? I use social media to promote, so that I can redirect as many people as I can to my own web properties, where I can monetize them. Most business-driven bloggers and perhaps writers looking for promotion still believe in their own web properties they can control. The future of blogs is just starting. I still know people, believe it or not, I have to explain WordPress too and these are people that are quite active online, in fact some even have their own websites. This is not a bad thing though; it proves there is still massive growth for CMSs out there. With HTML 5 and the movement back to the web VS. apps…you are going to be seeing growth again in this area.
I don’t see any disagreement in what you’re saying, but you are missing my point above. Blog as a technology has evolved (perhaps the term dead doesn’t belong here as everything evolves).
The social-web is Facebook and Facebook is social-web. We don’t have to be hung up on Facebook but it is a good representation of empire-branding (or island-branding). What I am ultimately saying is that web itself has evolved into social-web and social-web does not have a need for blog technology.
We could very well have evolved from a plain old HTML website to present day social-web, but credit does go out to Matt/Wordpress for being a part, or a hope between say Geocities to Facebook. Blogging provided what Geocities could not, i.e, the commenting and the RSS. These two pieces together (commenting and RSS) evolved us to where we are now, the Facebook/Twitter/social-branding, i.e, Tumblr etc world of today.
If we look at the history, there were some key technologies at the start, mainly, the HTML page, the email and the search. Now, remember that Yahoo was the single giant who took over all three of these technologies, html page/Geocities, email, email-list/Onelist-yahoogroups, and the Internet search itself. What they did to all of these key technologies, is part of the history. Another giant was AOL and as we very well know, the average user back then only knew of Internet as AOL and AOL as internet. This pretty much means that AOL was a browser just as Firefox or Chrome is a browser in its evolved form now.
So, based on all this, I am of the firm conviction that we have moved on from the blogs and we are now in the social-web where link-blogs, micro-blogs/social-web and branding is what we use. The blogs as we knew them have already been lost to CMS/websites (which technically means WordPress is still relevant).
Right on the money, dude. Facebook will die long before blogs do.
As a WordPress consultant, I’ve been using this blog software many different ways…none of them related to blogging! Of course, blogging becomes part and parcel of these websites once customers realize then can communicate with their clients and promote their brand.
Some sites I built using WordPress: Ecommerce, newspaper, business websites, multi-language sites with localized translations, partner portals, etc.
WordPress is an excellent foundation for just about anything 🙂
@Dennis, you proved my point. The traditional blogging which was a personal/public diary with commenting plugged in, has long been evolved. The WordPress practically gave bells and whistles to the traditional HTML website and it is the websites with all types of variations that matters now. Just take an example of Techcrunch, Mashable, they started out as blogs and they are actually websites by now. The Drudge, the Dailykos, the Huffpro, none of them are plain old blogs but they are websites with commenting (Drudge seems to be holding on traditionally).
However, WordPress seems to have lost out to micro-blogging/link-blogging as apparently Tumblr/Twitter etc seems to be taking the lead. WordPress also does not have a lead in social-media like Facebook and such. These are interesting dynamics being played out on the internet.
Whether it was Geocities or WordPress and other blogs, it made the internet a true network of multitude of independent sites with varied looks and contents. Facebook being a big walled garden and with cookie cutter pages for all has almost killed the meaning of the internet (it has worried even the big T Lee)
Blogs do live and will live but it is sort of subdued to the 700 million ( I guess really plenty of fake or non-users though) FB users. Wish other SNWs did somewhat well and not let this monopoly happen. I have an idea for MS+G+Y+A+WP but who is listening!
I had several wishes on Buddypress but that has sort of stagnated.
Yes, because any other site you call blog could very well have survived as a plain old website with an evolved and polished interface (unlike Geocities which Yahoo murdered). So blogs as we know them are dead (Matt, your blog here is a linkblog, isn’t it? Is it alive in a traditional form or are you just not using Tumblr?).
The examples of the blogs author provide above could have survived as a website with a commenting add-on. They could ultimately have evolved with social add-on. The blogs were just a stepping stone – or a distraction – towards the social web as the internet has evolved by now.
Blogs are not dead. Far from it. In fact, I see the death of Facebook before blogs. Blogging is a way to grow your own personal brand, and in essence, your business. It really depends on how one looks at the web, I supposed. The web in the long run will be moving towards a “everyone has a mini-empire” type of mentality. I mean, why give Facebook your talent and money? I use social media to promote, so that I can redirect as many people as I can to my own web properties, where I can monetize them. Most business-driven bloggers and perhaps writers looking for promotion still believe in their own web properties they can control. The future of blogs is just starting. I still know people, believe it or not, I have to explain WordPress too and these are people that are quite active online, in fact some even have their own websites. This is not a bad thing though; it proves there is still massive growth for CMSs out there. With HTML 5 and the movement back to the web VS. apps…you are going to be seeing growth again in this area.
I don’t see any disagreement in what you’re saying, but you are missing my point above. Blog as a technology has evolved (perhaps the term dead doesn’t belong here as everything evolves).
The social-web is Facebook and Facebook is social-web. We don’t have to be hung up on Facebook but it is a good representation of empire-branding (or island-branding). What I am ultimately saying is that web itself has evolved into social-web and social-web does not have a need for blog technology.
We could very well have evolved from a plain old HTML website to present day social-web, but credit does go out to Matt/Wordpress for being a part, or a hope between say Geocities to Facebook. Blogging provided what Geocities could not, i.e, the commenting and the RSS. These two pieces together (commenting and RSS) evolved us to where we are now, the Facebook/Twitter/social-branding, i.e, Tumblr etc world of today.
If we look at the history, there were some key technologies at the start, mainly, the HTML page, the email and the search. Now, remember that Yahoo was the single giant who took over all three of these technologies, html page/Geocities, email, email-list/Onelist-yahoogroups, and the Internet search itself. What they did to all of these key technologies, is part of the history. Another giant was AOL and as we very well know, the average user back then only knew of Internet as AOL and AOL as internet. This pretty much means that AOL was a browser just as Firefox or Chrome is a browser in its evolved form now.
So, based on all this, I am of the firm conviction that we have moved on from the blogs and we are now in the social-web where link-blogs, micro-blogs/social-web and branding is what we use. The blogs as we knew them have already been lost to CMS/websites (which technically means WordPress is still relevant).
Right on the money, dude. Facebook will die long before blogs do.
As a WordPress consultant, I’ve been using this blog software many different ways…none of them related to blogging! Of course, blogging becomes part and parcel of these websites once customers realize then can communicate with their clients and promote their brand.
Some sites I built using WordPress: Ecommerce, newspaper, business websites, multi-language sites with localized translations, partner portals, etc.
WordPress is an excellent foundation for just about anything 🙂
Everything is relative and nothing is absolute.
@Dennis, you proved my point. The traditional blogging which was a personal/public diary with commenting plugged in, has long been evolved. The WordPress practically gave bells and whistles to the traditional HTML website and it is the websites with all types of variations that matters now. Just take an example of Techcrunch, Mashable, they started out as blogs and they are actually websites by now. The Drudge, the Dailykos, the Huffpro, none of them are plain old blogs but they are websites with commenting (Drudge seems to be holding on traditionally).
However, WordPress seems to have lost out to micro-blogging/link-blogging as apparently Tumblr/Twitter etc seems to be taking the lead. WordPress also does not have a lead in social-media like Facebook and such. These are interesting dynamics being played out on the internet.
Whether it was Geocities or WordPress and other blogs, it made the internet a true network of multitude of independent sites with varied looks and contents. Facebook being a big walled garden and with cookie cutter pages for all has almost killed the meaning of the internet (it has worried even the big T Lee)
Blogs do live and will live but it is sort of subdued to the 700 million ( I guess really plenty of fake or non-users though) FB users. Wish other SNWs did somewhat well and not let this monopoly happen. I have an idea for MS+G+Y+A+WP but who is listening!
I had several wishes on Buddypress but that has sort of stagnated.