For quite some time, it has seemed as if many blogs I've known and loved have dropped off the face of the earth one by one. At first, there were many new ones appearing and, certainly, people do get tired of writing on almost any topic.
However, the reality is that social media giants (not naming any in particular) have been reducing interest generally in blogs.
Below is what Google Trends says about interest in blogs. For those that don't know, blogspot (blogger) is a Google product. Wordpress is a competing product.
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| Google Trend over time for the Seach Term "blog? |
As can easily be seen, Google trends show the term "blog" peaking in popularity in August, 2009. This blog started at the end of July, 2009. As of October 2020, blog is used less than 20% as much as it was at its peak. Things are even worse for blogspot, which is only about 5% of its peak popularity as a search term. Wordpress has not suffered as badly, but even it is down 2/3 from its peak.
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| Relative Popularity of "Blogspot" versus "Wordpress" over time |
Perhaps the writing is on the wall for those not using Facebook or Twitter or any of the other overwhelming social media.
Hmm...
5 comments:
Of courses I've also noticed the drop in blog popularity. However, it's a platform that caters to writers, so I think it will be around for a while. I like immediacy of posting quick images and short descriptions on IT but if I have something to say there's nothing like composing a few paragraphs on a keyboard.
I agree with anniebikes. Writers will still like the essay and article format of a blog. We may be driven to extinction by a majority who don't want to read anything more than a few lines or a meme, but we'll go down typing. And no one will ever know what our last words were, because no one will have bothered to read them.
Sadly, regardless of our intention to write, Google has a history of cutting off stuff considered to be more trouble than it's worth. Perhaps it is time to learn more about WordPress in case Google cuts off Blogger.
I have never been able to spot a trend: Midlife Cycling started in June 2010, a year after the blog trend "peaked." Still, I think I'll stick with blogging. My interests and temprament aren't well-suited to memes or splashy images: I have Facebook and Instagram accounts but rarely post to them. I just hope Google doesn't cut off Blogger: I don't want my stuff to be lost.
This is alarming. Not that blogs are less popular, but that Google might flush Blogspot down the historical commode. I've been ranting into the Internet since 2007. Not so much to get more readers but because I like to blog and if someone is reading it, so much the better.
It is, actually pretty troubling that we have devolved into a culture that thinks discussions should be kept to the length of a tweet. That does not bode well for the more complicated aspects of civil society.
I've avoided FB like the plague for personal privacy reasons and find Twitter to be the rhetorical equivalent of matches and gasoline. People post a few lines as much to aggravate as to inform and to me, you can't have a decent discussion with a daisy chain of tweets.
Hopefully Google will not abandon us.
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