We stumbled across an interesting article by Matthew Ingram the other day, lamenting the loss of the old ‘blogosphere‘. What made it especially poignant was the fact that it was posted on one of the prime examples of the new corporatized ‘blog’, Gigaom, which many years ago transitioned from small and friendly to big and rich. It’s progress.
We’ve seen a lot of changes over the 14 years the Red Ferret has been in action, most of it revolving around advertising money and its effects on small successful blogs, as well as the impact of social media networks. Nothing new there. But what’s important to note is the fact that the blogosphere hasn’t really gone away, it’s still there, but fractured into many different value streams.
Web veterans like Dan Gillmor are now calling it ‘the indie web’, which is just another way of saying the syndicated web, but it’s all good stuff. Despite the impact of massive networks like Facebook, and micro blogging tools like Twitter, there are still some great blogs out there which deliver expert, interesting and authentic viewpoints on a vast range of subjects.
The difference between then and now is the fact that now there are many more of them, and they’re harder to find in amongst all the noise and Pinterest clones. Sites like Textually.org, from Emily Turrettini is a prime example. It’s 11 years old and still delivers top class, unaffected commentary and news from the world of mobile communications. But you won’t find it quoted every day on Techmeme, simply because it’s not covering the latest…gasp….launch from SamAppNok Inc.
It’s going to be fascinating to see where things go from here, as the web continues morphing into whatever the heck it’s becoming. And hopefully top quality commentary will continue to serve the public as it’s always done.