Trend Forecast: Blogs Replacing Websites

Union Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, founded in 1988, has turned its site into a blog.

In an explanation that describes the advantages of blogs in a nutshell, they said they thought about updating the thesis that was the heart of the site, but realized that since it is always evolving, the best thing to do is to "publish the conversation." And the best way to do that, they say, is with a blog.

A blog is just a simple type of website software, with a built-in searchable database. Nothing mysterious or complicated about it. In the hands of a good designer, a company's visual identity and branding can be integrated into the blog design. The advantage is easy updating, easy RSS integration, the ability to add video and audio.

Goodbye Website
Very few companies can benefit from a static website any longer. I am soon going to take mine down, incorporating the important parts (portfolio, articles, services) into this blog. That's because nobody has time or interest in a thesis. We all want the just the facts, m'am.

Your blog is cool, but I gotta say I disagree with you on this one. With all due respect. There are a lot of crummy websites out there, but I don't think they're going away. They serve a purpose.

Blogging is exploding, but having just finished a four year stint at an interactive agency doing website strategy and design for F1000's I can tell you that sites are alive and well.

Plus bigco CEO's would just freak right out about control, let alone their minions. They're already losing millions on e-mail logs and what employees are saying through that channel. Got a solution for that one?

Yep

I have a mixed reaction to this and the comments. I do believe that blogs are and should be replacing websites. It is a smarter way to build sites.

There are the issues of control freaks being unwilling to let go of control, but you can still keep blogs fairly controlled. There are issues of crummy websites that aren't going away.

However, I one blog today which posed the question of whether we are approaching a new Internet bubble. Perhaps we are. Perhaps the Internet Bubble 1.0 was as people moved to online shopping. Despite all the predictions, brick and mortar remains important.

Now, we are haveing a Web 2.0 bubble. Everyone is buying blogging and blog searching companies, however, P.R. and Marketting savvy isn't going to be superceded by blogging. Instead, the successful players will be those that combine P.R. and Marketting savvy with blog expertise, and those relying on just blog expertise will go the same way as so many of those firms in the first bubble that relied only on online sales.

Ok, I'm a little late to this party, but let me say that while I think you're probably right (I believe we'll see websites make a transition to more blog-like qualities, especially with regard to content), I think the distinction between "blog" and "website" is missed by most people.

Most of the clients I work with can't tell me the difference between the two. Part of that is due to the huge share of market that is still "blog-ignorant". And don't even get me started on podcasts.

As usual, great insights BL. I've pointed people to this post and your site again off my "Much Ado About Marketing" blog.

Thanks again,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

Thanks for the kind words Mike.

A blog IS a type of website. Most of the pages of my company site, http://www.whatsnextonline.com, now use blog software and are integrated into the main site.

Moveable Type has a great interface, excellent search and database capabilities. The skill comes in the hand of the designer, who integrated the look and feel with my graphic identity.

When I ask most designers if they are using blog sofware so clients can update their sites themselves, they look at me like I have two heads. IMO, it's web designers who are way behind. Maybe they are afraid they will lose money when people can update their own sites.

could not agree more with this. I think by the end of 2009, at the very latest, traditional websites, and webmasters are goign to be left in the dust. You can now do anything with a blog that you can do with a website.