Article Review: "Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004"

In Paul Boutin's article on Wired.com "Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004," he discusses the evolution of the blog and how newer programs have made blogging a thing of the past. The author describes blogging as an old art that has been lost by the hordes of "cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns." Boutin complains that an individual's blog will easily be drowned out my the hundreds of blogs a throng of journalists can publish in a day. No more are the days where a google search will lead you to a random blog. Corporations and publications have taken over the blogosphere and people are now looking for a new way to express themseleves.

Enter Twitter. Applications such as Twitter have given bloggers a fresher look at the art of blogging. No longer does an individual spend hours writing one blog, now a twitterer can write a miniblog in under a minute. The author believes Twitter is to 2008 what blogging was to 2004. A new and different way to get your thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. on the web.

This article relates directly to chapter 7 from "Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm". In chapter 7 the authors describe Web 2.0. This is the name given to the second generation of webpages that actually involve the individual. Blogs, Facebook profiles, Wikipedia, and now Twitter are all forms of Web 2.0 applications. These programs make the individual feel more connected and give the user an easy way to contribute to their social environment via the internet. The evolution of Web 2.0 over the last half decade has been remarkable. With, what Boutin would likely consider the rise and fall of the blog, it will be interesting to see where the next five years take us and how long it will be until we reach Web 3.0....

Article: http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/16-11/st_essay