Is Blog Space Threatening MySpace?

Remembering back maybe 5 years ago or so, I was one of the first dedicated users of MySpace and watched as it took off. I remember when only certain demographics were considered fit for MySpace and when the user interface was almost completely different than what it is today.

If anyone reading was there with me, then you remember only being able to upload up to 9 pictures to your page at a time, you remember when changing your layout was way cool and different, you remember when people first started removing their top 8, you remember when there was no status or mood field yet, no home page layouts, etc..

I think it's interesting that I see so much of the same potential in blogging networks, but even more!!

In browsing through random blogs, you see everything from sales pages, people documenting hobbies or projects, personal journal type blogs, family blogs, teen blogs, professional blogs, etc. These same types of sites can be found on sites like MySpace, only perhaps in a bit of a different light. That last fact is what I think gives the blogging community a leg up on the foundation they are working with vs what sites like MySpace started with.

Blogging is by far not looked down on by the 25 and up age groups, as MySpace was or maybe even still is. Blogging can be used by the young, but is still appropriate for older folks too. In general, blogging is a respectable idea for anyone who can spell and read.

Like the beginnings of MySpace, most blog accounts have a home page, accept comments, allow for pictures or video, and allow you to "decorate" with layout templates.

I am gonna be bold and predict that blogging may very well in the future follow a similar pattern of development as sites like MySpace. I foresee it being only a matter of time before "everyone has a blog" (which to some seems to already be the case), you can email or message people via their blog site, coding sites may add blog templates if they haven't already, a status bar or mood field may be almost certain, and a bulletin board between you and your followers would be amazing. And while we're at it, maybe we should all add a place for our top eight followers too, lol. I'm kidding on that last one.

My point is, blogging communities may have a shadow to cast on sites like MySpace, if they haven't already cast it. While MySpace may currently have what I believe to be a more "connected community" via a more developed user face, I also believe that blogging networks have the potential to gain on that aspect and then prevail also in other things such as a bigger user population and a greater range of acceptable uses, making blogging networks a for sure threat to sites like MySpace.

Briefly, I'll refer to my comment that, "sites like MySpace may be a more connected community," and clarify what I meant. I've only been blogging for a couple months now, but what I feel blogger accounts lack are ways of communication between the site publisher and the reader. There are very little default ways to contact a given blogger. In fact, there is only one, comments. There is no blogger messaging system or bulletin board. Such links would have to be added by the maker of the site and routed to their personal email.

In the future (and I mean future as in it's beginning to happen now and is growing), I see bloggersville being very successful, as a new and revolutionary way of publishing news, ads, journals, projects, etc. And sites like MySpace may suffer, as people move from smaller radius sites like MySpace to bigger broader communities like blogging networks. That is, if blogging networks proceed with user interface developments, adding new abilities and functions and greater ease of connectedness.

Guess we'll see.... meanwhile, I'll continue to use both :-)