Gartner and others have been reporting for some time that blogging has hit saturation. I wonder if Gartner predicted 1995 that HTML had peaked because all most of the world’s physics professors had already put their dissertations online.
I’ll say it again. WordPress, Movable Type. Typepad, Drupal, etc. are (for most) simply a better way to build a WEB SITE. Blogs are an essential Web architecture, not just a limited platform for diaries.
As a bone to the “peak” crowd, I’ll agree–yes, most sweater ladies that are going to write about their cats have probably already done so.
The use of blog engines will continue to grow significantly, as they overtake those horrid flat HTML pages still being built like crazy.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Joseph Thornley 03.02.07 at 5:02 am
Steve,
You are bang on.
I’d add that growth beyond a certain point isn’t necessary. The very existence of so many blogs that respond to niche interests along with general interests already has changed the relationship of citizen to information. The gatekeepers have lost their privileged position.
The issue now is better tools that allow us to find and share the distinctive voices that offer something of value. A whole new information economy exists. Relative stability in size will allow us all to focus on sorting and organizing the content. That’s the next big step in making social media more useful to more people.
John Cass 03.15.07 at 10:30 pm
Business blogs are certainly in early adoption phase, only 10% of the fortune 500 are blogging, and most of those companies are tech related.