Twitter is killing blogging, according to an article by the editor of TechGuardian Charles Arthur. Blogs are withering off the face of the internet and it's the fault of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, he claims.
His article follows up a New York Times story 'Blogs falling in an empty forest' which flashed some statistics from a 2008 Technorati survey: only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the search engine tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That works out as 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned.
Arthur backs up the stats with some anecdotal evidence about dried-up blog feeds, as the tech web-logs he follows curl up and die.
Why? Because it's easier to tweet, he thinks. Tweeting is shorter, and we are lazy.
It's an opinion backed up by a quick twitterview we conducted with popular London blogger: www.themanwhofellasleep.com now @themanwhofell - who has just called shots on his website and directs followers to his twitterfeed. Why is Twitter better? ShinyShiny asked.
"They are very different beasts" he responded "- it's like comparing texting with phone calls. Personally I like Twitter because I'm lazy." - Fair enough.
So by way of explanation, we've pulled out photoshop out and done a few, errr, 'illustrations' of the 5 reasons Tweets are doing better than Blogs.
Click on the first picture below to start the gallery.
[nb: the 'Blogger' logo represents blogs generally, not just Blogger blogs]
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From a reader point of view, I think blogs still win out thanks to sheer readability. It's much nicer to settle down to a good blog post than to scan through a list of tweets.
Maybe we'll see less blogs, but of higher quality? People who have a point to explore in depth and who like to wax lyrical are still more likely to blog.
Twitter is also full of a lot of commerical players and people doing PR for their sites or companies, and you don't get that so much with blogs. I think the two play different enough roles for both to survive. The two niches may get farther apart over time as the interfaces and cultures adapt towards their respective user types. It'll be fun finding out at any rate.
And to TMWFA - blog more!
I think this is rubbish, blogs are stronger than ever. I'm reading one now! :)
ah yes... see what you're saying Sarah.. and uh, yes, good point Ric.
maybe should do another err *blog*-post redressing the balance.
CAPTCHA will kill blogs.
I had a nice thoughtful comment written and screwed up the CAPTCHA.
When I use the "return" link, the comment was gone.
ARGH.
Quick note on our data: Technorati's 2008 study was the FIRST time we took a close look at not only how many blogs were being created, but which of those bloggers remained active. This ratio has very likely been constant.
Seriously folks, Twitter won't kill blogs today or tomorrow. It's like saying that sugar would kill coffee. Twitter offers the pointer, and "real-time" updates, while Blogs offer more background and perspective. Twitter is a great promotion tool for bloggers and I don't see that changing tomorrow.
the only blogs that will fall are the mindless drivel of friends which naturally don't make good blogs. Thats what facebook and twitter are for.
I think what we are seeing is a refining of blogs. Blogs that will stay and be read will be well written with something interesting to say.
Sure everyone's on Twitter, but most are not replying.. I can get way more responses from my blog that I can on Twitter anyday, unless I can come up with some drunken, spaced-out, sucking-on-a-bong quote that nobody really understands, but tries to pretend to be sooo darn deep!
Keep it Blogging!
Twitter is actually boosting up interesting blogs, leaving the boring ones die of starvation. I came here from a Twitter link...
I totally agree with "Martino". I'm reading this article thanks to a twitter link posted by... a Brazilian journalist... who runs a famous BLOG down here!
I think that there is space for both, and, of course Twitter cover more people. Blogs will continue, maybe with some adjustment.
I don't think it's an either/or proposition - people who don't have the time to blog will no doubt move over to Twitter to share their thoughts, but those people who want to create more exploratory and complete arguments can only do so in a medium that allows it.
yes, all good points. i cover the other side of the blog v twitter argument more here:
Why People Blog and Why They'll Keep Doing It
http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2009/06/post_66.html
and thanks to everyone who has made the hop here via twitter..
Twitter is also full of a lot of commerical players and people doing PR for their sites or companies, and you don't get that so much with blogs.