Blogs: The Honeymoon is Over

Is it just me but is the buzz about blogs not what it used to be?

Not that long ago, people were really excited about blogs, and the wave of great new content being created about anything and everything. Heck, Robert Scoble claimed to read more than 700 blogs a day, which inspired lots of people to read lots of blogs themselves.

Today, however, blogs don’t have the same kind of mojo. Sure, the blogosphere is just as vibrant, busy and interesting but there’s less excitement.

It may have to do with the fact the novelty about blogs is over. Blogs have now been around for a few years, and have become an entrenched part of the media landscape. In many respects, the honeymoon is over, and blogs have settled into a solid, long-term relationship. It’s not to suggest the “marriage” is no longer exciting but it’s probably less passionate.

Another thesis is people have less time for blogs at a time when their digital lives are becoming increasingly busy and multi-pronged. A growing number of people, who used to spend a lot of time reading blogs, are spending time with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and, of course, their e-mail. The reality is people are becoming digitally stretched, and blogs are getting less love these days.

The concept of being digitally stretched is something I’m going to talk more about later this week. I think the market is ripe for services and tools to streamline, prioritize and simplify our digital worlds so that the time we have is spent as productivity and efficiently as possible.

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http://www.andrewcurrie.ca AC

Being currently infatuated with Twitter myself, I wrote a similar blog post on this very subject:

http://is.gd/hPCo

I wonder if another factor is the mainstreaming of blogs, i.e. Autoblog, Engadget and the like — could it be that readers’ expectations of blogs are higher now?
http://cnreviews.com Elliott Ng

Actually I think blogs will be strong in the coming economic downturn. People will have more free time and will seek entertainment and information. Yes SNS, microblogging, etc. will also gain. But the time pie is expanding.
http://blogcampaigning.com Parker

Half of the world is noticing that the traditional media organizations are dying out out, and the other half says that blogs aren’t as important as they used to be.

I think a better way of looking at is that two are essentially merging – major blogs look more like traditional publications and newspaper websites are more like blogs these days.
http://www.nitch.ca Andrew Lane

Couldn’t agree more about the honeymoon phase and the relationship analogy. Blogs have found their home as a source of opinion and insight for readers looking for expanded content on a particular topic. From blogs such as your own focusing on insight, to those new couples set up for their babies, to travelogs for those far away from home – they have carved out an appropriate niche. With widgets and other tools helping to close the loop with new and evolving platforms you mentioned, I would say this maturation of the blogger’s place on the net is really a good thing, in the greater scheme.
http://thefuturebuzz.com Adam Singer

This is a good thing. Weed out the people who aren’t serious or committed. Let those who only do things because of fleeting excitement leave the space and allow those who are passionate to win.

Mark you say this like it’s a bad thing…it isn’t. Everything that is “new” in society generally feels shiny and bright in the beginning and many jump on board. Guess what – things don’t get interesting until the buzz dies down.
http://pjmixer.blogspot.com/ PJMixer

Talking of prioritzation…did you see the following post Mark ?

http://blogs.computerworld.com/two_attention_focusing_apps_kill_distractions
http://scrawledinwax.com Nav

Yeah, I’ve been feeling the same thing recently too. I’ve been on a hiatus from blogging for about six months due to academic commitments. When I start up again in mid-March, I feel like I’ll be returning to a different blogosphere, as if the conversation has moved elsewhere.

But I think things might change. There’s a lot of conversation happening on Twitter right now, largely because it’s quick and even more immediately gratifying than blogging. But 140 characters, to put it mildly, isn’t much. I think once we all get a sense of which conversations belong where, things will level out a bit. I do think you’re right though – I’m not sure the initial excitement will ever be recovered.
http://tocome... Charlie

You’re right and it’s for the better as far as blogs go. Any blog was exciting a year ago, now people are more discriminating. Facebook is great for teenagers and people with too much time on their hands. LinkedIn is still the best professional site. And Twitter? It depends who writes. Otherwise, look at the dictionary definition: “talk rapidly and at length in an idle or trivial way : he twittered on about buying a new workshop.”"
http://web3skills.com Chris

The day I started blogging everything went all to hell
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Paul Vieira

Just not enough time for me to read blogs. There is so much out there… I am frankly surprised people have time to read blogs. I know in Ottawa there are specialty bloggers, like Paul Wells, that get their audience, but very few. Personally, i would like to see a lot less clutter on the Web a lot more attention paid to very good quality. It is quality over quantity, stupid. (Paraphrasing the Clinton team).
http://openmode.ca Malcolm Bastien

I think you’re proving a point right now about why blogs will still be around in the long term. Even if people go from reading 700 blogs a day down to 0 and focus all their time on twitter and Facebook, for the blog author there is still no better way to explore an idea if only for his or her own personal self education.
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http://mrblog.org/ David Beckemeyer

I’d wager that a lot of mainstream users have no idea whether the web page they’re looking at is a “blog” or not. They found it via search or through a link someone sent them. They don’t do RSS.
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