The Butt Ugly Weblog

You say that blogs are becoming a commodity. Well the problem with word commodity comes from the fact that usual commodities we take for granted are things like water, oil, nails and air. No matter who the provider is, the base product is the same. It is possible to argue this is not the case with software, although the basic concept might be the same.

Also, commodities are something that are available to all, known by all and accessible by all. Blogs are not yet there, although you may argue that services like Blogger make it available. There is still a man-in-the-middle and that is connectivity, which is not a global commodity yet (it might be regionally cheap).

I know the commodization of software as a concept and it is a great concept and explains the events which occur when Open Source, interoperability and accessibility standards hit a certain common high-end product like a browser, a database or an operating system. The margins disappear as a result and value migrates to the next level just as it does with commodized products. I might be picky but in my opinion the current word to describle this is wrong, though. Value has not yet migrated from the concept of blogging itself to the next level which builds on top of it.

--Teemu Arina, 12-Nov-2004

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You might argue that the wires and the electricity company are the "middle men" the same as the blog system provider is a middle man for blogging. In Korea, broadband actually is already a commodity - and Japan and USA are getting there (urban areas only, though).

I don't buy the commodity argument just yet either; but I can certainly see it coming with such easy services as Blogger (and others). I am completely with you on the software commodization part; it has already happened with computer hardware, and it is certainly happening with software as well. Linux is a prime example of this in the server space.

There are some weak signals in blogs gaining value outside the concept of blogging as well; for example, you can buy Google Adwords for blogs. There are also other blog advertising systems. RSS seems to have also taken off pretty well, and there is now value in providing blog reading applications (aka aggregators).

--JanneJalkanen, 13-Nov-2004

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