Classification of Blogs

Types of Blogs

As we all know, the types of blogs out there may vary as drastically as one on flower decorations to one on marketing strategies. With this, blogs are classified to six major subject matters (Technorati, 2008):

a) Entertainment
b) Business
c) Lifestyle
d) Politics
e) Sports
f) Technology

Subcategories exist under these main categories to provide readers with more streamlined information pertaining to a specific interest. For instance, under sports, there are tennis, soccer, golf and baseball blogs. Occasionally, these blogs are even more focused on a specific team or player. For example, the Liverpool Fc blog, which offers news and updates on the Liverpool soccer team.

According to media analyst Margaret Simmons, blogs are classified into nine categories, including advocacy, advertisement and digest blogs (Funnell, 2008). However, the classifications offered by her provide a vague picture of the types of blogs and does not delve into a specific topic of interest. Plus, her classifications are difficult to comprehend compared to the classifications offered by Technorati and bloggers might find it confusing to categorize their blog using her classifications as some of the blogs might clash with the criteria provided by her blog types.

Blogging Communities

With all the talk on blog types, blogging communities have arisen as a result of this. A blogging community is a collection of related blogs that are grouped together (Awareness, 2006). An example of a blogging community would be of all the blogs within an organization. Also, members of a blogging community often share a similar interest or passion which will be discussed through blogs. A blogging community can be created through exploration of links between blogs and comment patterns (White, 2006).

An example of a blogging community is those who actively generate feedback on political blogs such as our opposition leader Lim Kit Siang’s weblog. Through the observation of reader comments, a community has been created as a pattern of feedback is apparent on his weblog.

Blog hosts such as Blogger and Wordpress have created blogging communities for fellow bloggers.

With this, the types of blogs bring about many blogging communities in web space. What blogging community are you part of?
___________________________________________________________________

References

Blog Directory 2008, Technorati, viewed 4 November 2008, http://technorati.com/blogs/directory

Definitions 2006, Awareness, viewed 5 November 2008, http://help.awarenessnetworks.com/default.asp?item=609943

Funnell, A 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 3 November 2008,
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

White, N 2006, Blogs and community – launching a new paradigm for online community?, The Knowledge Tree, viewed 4 November 2008,
http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community