Blogs: One size fits all

Just like free-size clothings, blogs can be made to accommodate the various genres and interests of people. Blogs are versatile and almost every aspect of it can be customised; the content, design layout, color scheme, name and many more. So it is no wonder that there is a myriad of different blog types.

According to Wikipedia (2009), there are:

• Personal blogs
• Corporate or organisational blogs
• Blogs by genre
• Blogs by media type
• Blogs by device

Blogs by genre are blogs that are geared towards a particular subject such as politics, fashion, music, education and so on. Blogs segregated according to media type are blogs which content are largely made up of a particular media such as videos (vlog), photos (photolog) and links (linklong). Lastly, some blogs are defined by the type of device used to compose it. For instance, a blog regularly written on a mobile device is called a moblog.

There are others who disagree with such classification of blogs and have come up with their own. One such person would be Margaret Simons.

Simons (2008) defined blog into 9 different categories:

• Pamphleteering blogs are blogs where individuals or groups argue a case or push a cause.

• The Digest blog acts as guides or summaries to information found in either the mainstream media or on other blogs.

• The Advocacy blog is similar to pamphleteering blogs except most of them are established by advocacy groups or commercial organisations.

• The Popular Mechanics blog provides users with information on how to do stuff, how things work and so on.

• The Exhibition blog strives to resemble an outlet for craftspeople, artists, and writers in which they use it to bring their work to a wider audience.

• The Gatewatcher blog acts as the media's watchdog. It keeps an eye on the media to see how well they are doing their job.

• The Diary blog serves as an online diary for people where its content are largely personal.

• The Advertisement blog is related to the Advocacy blog but is sometimes less honest when companies pay established bloggers to boost their products.

• The News blog is used to cover news for the public to read.

As you can see above, both Wikipedia and Margaret Simons differ in their classification of blogs. Wikipedia's classifications are based not only on content but also the technology used to blog, whereas Simons's taxonomy of blogs relied more on the differences in the blogs' content.

To sum it up, blogs can exist for many reasons and there is no right or wrong approach to classifying its many types. But in my opinion, I agree with Wikipedia's classification of blog as it provides categories not only based on a blog's content but also the type of media and device used.

References:

Simons, M 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, viewed 13 November 2009, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript)>.

Wikipedia 2009, Blogs, viewed 13 November 2009, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog>.