Blogs must adapt or die

Blogs, or as they were originally known, weblogs, first hit the World Wide Web back in 1997. The term "weblog" was coined in December that year and almost immediately abbreviated to "blog". The subsequent two decades saw the rise and rise of millions of blogs, they rode the wave of Web 2.0, became multi-author publication tools, and many matured into fully-fledged information and news services.

Now, writing in the in International Journal of Electronic Business, Parag Uma Kosalge, Suzanne Crampton, and Ashok Kumar of the Department of Management, at Seidman College of Business, at Grand Valley State University, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, ask whether blogs have had their day given the rise of social media and social networking sites and systems, such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, which are outpacing blogs in so many ways today.

Their study of over four hundred internet users found statistically significant evidence for reduced user awareness and consideration of blogging in recent years. However, their study also identified four business areas that users still find important for blogs, such as employee networking and online sales. As with many aspects of technology and in particular information and communications technology, the services on which users rely and use the most are constantly shifting. The services must, in the parlance of natural selection, adapt or die. Blogs may not have had their day, but it is critical that bloggers recognize the opposition they face from other non-blogging services online and in order to be sustainable must find ways to ride whichever wave comes along.