2 July 06
Chris over at Touchstone has made a post about Blogger Fatigue
Is it just me – or has there been some sort of slow-down in the blog-o-sphere. I know that a number of the ‘second tier’ bloggers (that is individuals that don’t necessarily do it for a living but used to do it a LOT) have become quite infrequent in their posts.
I have been meaning to make a post about the “blogosphere” for a few weeks now. I thought the slowdown may be due to summer or maybe the world cup – but now, I feel that the bubble of Web 2.0 is finally burst or is in the process of bursting.
We see Slashdot and Digg readers tiring of posts about the latest Web 2.0 project. Ruby on Rails – one of the bigger buzzwords associated with Web 2.0 – is slowly seeing it’s popularity slowing. There are a lot fewer posts on Rails compared to 6 months ago. We still see Ajax posts everywhere, but again, the cumulative amount is decreasing, as is Web 2.0 posts as a whole.
Are readers bored of Web 2.0? Are writers bored of Web 2.0? Was it ever going to be any other than a passing fad? Well, it has given us some useful things – Ajax, Rails and it’s associated DRY methologies, tags and folksonomy, increased awareness of standards – but with any web fad, once people overuse it’s buzzwords and terms and get on the bandwagon, readers will get uninterested and writers will steer clear of them.
With apathetic blog readers, authors will be less inclined to write for them. Hence, the current slowdown, not only in the blog world, but in internet technology in general.
Will we suffer professionally too? The buzz has gone out of the internet. Will we see less innovative and interesting projects? I, for one, certainly hope not. Let’s hope that bloggers keep on blogging – 99% of them are very enthusiastic about what they write about – despite the increasing lack of surrounding buzz.
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I agree that the innovation is decrease for Web 2.0 now, mainly because people have seen it in other places before and a lot of “innovations” are just rehashes of other creations. I don’t think anything in Web 2.0 now will ever get the same wow factor as Google Maps when it first arrived.
Unfortunately, Web 2.0 is going the same way as Web 1.0 (Gotta love these web version terms). Too many people on the bandwagon. Too many start-ups doing exactly the same thing, and starting up because there may be money involved – rather than to solve a problem.
Although, I don’t mind everyone and their dog having a blog actually (and not because it makes me feel a bit better about mine). I think writing has become a bit of a lost art over the last few years so it’s always good to see people actively want to write. Obviously there’s going to be a lot of noise but the more people that blog, the amount of good blogs increases, and people will start to rite betta…
Comment by fallenRogue on 4 July 2006, 16:14
Interesting theory…how lack of buzz is a barometer for the slowing interest in the Web 2.0. You might be on to something there but I would say that I don’t know that because the buzz is leveling out that the innovation is leveling out for this web 2.0. I just think that things like Ajax are now pretty common place so it’s hard to remain uber-excited when another ajaxian app is released. If the web 2.0 bubble is set to burst it’s more about signal to noise. For every del.icio.us you’ve got 100 clones, that’s bound to take the wind out of anything’s hype powered sails.
I will say, though, I do agree with you about the blogosphere being in a rut. I remember, as little as 4 years ago, when users had to craft their own blog systems and templates so there was a care and desire put into their sites, like souped up cars or something, now it seems blogging has become a way for people to turn pop nonsense into news just to up their Adsense clicks.
Ps- love the site, just added you to my RSS reader. :)