Blogs: Classification Systems and Styles

Caption: Blog Taxonomy (democraticunderground.com)


In the current world of colossal technological advancements and developments, anything and everything we can think of no longer requires taxing hours of searching as it is all within a click of the mouse. However, we are faced with the issue of having too much of resources and access; hence, information overload. This is when blogs come to the rescue. Due to its nature of niche audience, blogs narrow down their topics to cater to very specific publics; this enables viewers to filter the content easily and inspect sites that are related their subject matter only. (Democratic Underground.com 2006)

Blog taxonomy refers to the classification of blogs; besides assisting readers, the categorization of blogs helps bloggers increase ‘site traffic and repeat visitors significantly’ Examples of blog taxonomy: filter-style and free-style

Filter-Style:
The focus of such blogs are ‘linking to sites and/or articles that the author finds worthwhile for his or her readers’ (Wang 1999) Such sites act as guides for users to access other sources and websites. Simons (2008) classifies these blogs under the term ‘The Digest Blog’ Example: Veena’s Food Blog with Recipes: http://detailedrecipesformytweetsizere.blogspot.com/

Free-Style:
These blogs narrow its focus towards the ‘internal world of the blog author’ (Ozawa 2001) From angst fueled teenage diaries to random daily rambling; such blogs give an insight to readers about the author’s daily life and personality. Simons (2008) describes these blogs as ‘The Diary Blog’ whereby its genre is ‘intended for the friends and family of bloggers; as they contain news, photos and information of a largely personal kind.’ Example: Zara-Fied: http://melizahoney90.blogspot.com/

Other examples of blog classifications, according to Simons (2008):

• The Pamphleteering Blog
• The Digest Blog
• The Advocacy Blog
• The Popular Mechanics Blog
• The Exhibition Blog
• The Gatewater Blog
• The Diary Blog
• The Advertisement Blog
• The News Blog

Examples of other blog categories:

By media type:
Vlogs (video based blogs) Youtube.com
Photolog (photograph based blogs) Fotolog.com
Tumblelogs (mixed media based) Tumblr.com

By device:
Moblog (blogging via mobile phones) Twitter.com

By status of publishers:
Corporate Blogs: Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Business Blogs: Malaysia Finance http://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/

By subject matter:
Shopping: http://www.emmagem.com/
Travel: http://travelpangs.blogspot.com/
Beauty: http://losefathow.blogspot.com/

In my opinion, the best way of classifying blogs are through its subject matter and its popularity. As blogs of all genre are written by various individuals of different demographics (gender, location, education background), specified blog topics and high popularity statistics can help determine if the weblog is worth reading.

References:

Blog taxonomy in a nutshell. The importance of tags and categories 2006, Democratic Underground, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1657266>

Simons, M 2008, Towards a taxonomy of blogs, Australian Policy Online, Swinburne University of Technology, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://www.apo.org.au/commentary/towards-taxonomy-blogs-0>

Wang, A 1999, Online Digests Help Readers Cope With Information Avalanche. The New York Times On the Web, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/08/biztech/articles/02link.htm>

Ozawa, KR 2001, Journal vs. weblog, Diarist.net, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://www.diarist.net/guide/blogjournal.shtml>