Classification of blogs

Hey readers!

Fun-fact: The term ‘weblog’ was coined from its original combination of two words, web and log by Jorn Barger (Blood 2004).

Nowadays, as people blog for different purposes, there is a need of classifications of blogs according to the range of field and topic being discussed. In fact, Technorati (2008) classified blogs into three general areas which are

• Personal blogs
• Corporate blogs
• Professional blogs

There are blogs that identified based on their media types or genres. These include:

• Vlog - it is a blog with a collection of videos.
• Linklog - it is a compilation of links.
• Sketchblog - a blog with the portfolio of sketches.
• Tumblelog - it is similar to linklog, but with more variation of posts with short postings.

(Source: Wikipedia 2009)

Apart from that, blogs also classified by the subject matter. For example:

• Fashion
• Food
• Politics
• Travel
• Sport

By device - Moblog, e.g Seth Lakeman's moblog

Moblog is useful for bloggers to update with using mobile devices when they are away from computer.

There are also blogs based on status of publisher, for example, Blogbusinessworld and Redfin corporate blog.

According to Simons (2008), an author and media analyst from Australia, blogs breaks down into 9 categorized, which include:

1. Pamphleteering blogs
2. Digest blogs
3. Advocacy blogs
4. Popular mechanics blogs
5. Exhibition blogs
6. Gatewater blogs
7. Diary
8. Advertisement
9. News blogs

One of the difficulties with the combinations of blogs styles is to identify the types, and this required the reader to observe the topic, style and format to understand it. For example, the vlog blog, which consists of blogs from the format of videos, from the styles, reader will be able to recognize it easily. Classifications are still yet to be mentioned by author, because, there is still cases where genre of blog overlap one another. Therefore, author must classify their blogs to simplify reading process for the readers.

References:

• Blood, R 2004, 'How blogging software reshapes the online community', Communications of the ACM, vol. 47, no. 21, online, viewed 16^th November 2009, from http://siti-server01.siti.disco.unimib.it/itislab/uploads/2007/11/how-blogging-software-reshapes-the-online-community.pdf.
• Simons, M 2008, A Taxonomy of Blogs, online, retrieved 16^th November 2009, from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript.
• Wikipedia 2009, Blog, viewed 16^th November 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog.