2005 – The Real Year of the Blog ?

Expect 2005 to open with a predictable slew of fashionably righteous articles de-hyping and pooh-poohing all things blog related, some even by bloggers themselves. Many will lament advertisers co-opting the medium, as well as the influx of clumsy, less savvy newbies in the blogosphere. Even so, the blog format will endure and grow, quickly advancing to a powerful rich-media context, punctuated by surprising new capabilities, such as podcasting.

Publishers, site managers, and even message board managers will embrace (or in some cases, begrudgingly capitulate to) RSS. Big brands and their sites will find the “add water and stir” nature of blog publishing tools irresistible. That will humble overpriced agencies that view platforms such as TypePad and Movable Type as more evil than outsourcing.

Oh, and did I mention that ubiquitous PR-industry blogger Steve Rubel will almost certainly leave his current PR firm to start a new communications agency entitled Macro Persuasion?

Pete mentions two items in the first paragraph that I want to touch on briefly:

Advertisers use of blogs as marketing tools – Blog purists such as Dave W(h)iner are going to have to just get over it. Blogs have become a marketing vehicle in much the same way email did. Sure, because blogging is a nascent medium still very much in its infancy, mistakes will be made. Abuses will happen. Every child falls a few times before she learns to walk, right?

I’ve said it before. In the long run either the blogosphere or the marketplace (or both) will determine what use of blogs by advertisers are worth their salt, and which ones are mere scams.

Newbie bloggers – I admit to having a concern here. I’m concerned that blogging will lose its je ne sais quoi and become nothing more than the sum of its technical parts, merely a “content management system.”

I don’t want to see blogging lose its unique character – the overt opinion, the strong voice, the passion and personality of its writer. There is a certain spirit of blogging that must continue to prevail.

I think it is incumbent upon us “veteran” bloggers (I’ve been doing this a year. Does that make me a veteran?) to carry the torch of blog tradition to those new converts who still don’t really understand what it’s all about.