I think that Blogs are as popular as they are for a number of reasons.
They are highly useable and acessable to the masses, who can (and entusiastically do) use them to publish
Personal thoughts and reflections,
Journalism
Academic or technical information
Advice manuals
Product Support (Blogs used to market products)
Blogs are an example of peer media and therefore are a great way of people expressing themselves, or getting information published. Blogs can also be a source of income through such things as AdWords. There are lots of blogs on blogging, how to blog and how to make money from blogging.
I personally can’t see any downside to blogs, I love the idea of citizen jornalism or peer controlled media, and see it as being refreshingly free (or comparitively anyway) from the manipulating influence of large corps – unlike the traditional media. Sure it’s true that the blogger’s sometimes don’t exibit the linguistic skills, polish or general mastery over their chosen language that a traditional journo might, but I think that is a small price to pay for access to an endless supply of rich, raw and candid information…that’s just the way I like it! So from my perspective, Blogs are all good.
In terms of their usability, Blog formats allow users who would not normally have the skills to publish via HTML to do so using simpler template tools, meaning, yet again that the online world is much richer than it would without this app.
