A good analysis from Christian Science Monitor. (Thanks, Eric.)

BlogPulse, an analytics company operated by Nielsen, shows hundreds
of new blogs launched every week. In fact, as the Pew study indicates,
blogging has actually climbed slightly in popularity among American
adults over the age of 30, from 7 percent in 2007 to 11 percent last
year.

But many longtime bloggers say that the blog is entering
a period of important transition – from one-size-fits-all soapbox to
just one more tool in the cluttered Internet toolbox.

Facebook and Twitter,
and not the blog, are now “the glue that holds online communities
together,” says Dylan Wilbanks, a Web producer in Seattle. Gone are the
days when Mr. Wilbanks would take to his blog to describe quotidian
events or record passing fancies. “Sharing small pieces of data like
links over blogs was like owning a heavy-duty pickup that you only used
to pick up bread and milk at the grocery store,” he says. “Blogs are
meant for people for whom being a writer, being a creator, is a
passion, or perhaps a requirement of life. They’re meant for people for
whom Facebook’s ‘What’s on your mind?’ question can’t always be
answered in 500 characters or less.” As Wilbanks is quick to point out,
not everyone has that passion, which is why blogging is losing its
luster.