Digg This Story   Jan 25 08

/ by rich auger

Are blogs dumbing down the web? On a daily basis amateur bloggers battle with, and now seem to outnumber, the professionals when it comes to vying for our online reading time. But the question remains "Is this a good thing?". For the sake of today the focus will remain around the design industry but the topic can definitely be debated for the web as a whole.

Every debate has two sides and this topic is no exception. On a positive note the blog has opened up the web to anyone with an opinion to have his or her voice heard which we can all agree is a good thing. On the negative side (remember that we are talking about the design industry) simply having a page and an opinion does not an expert make.

After writing Brand Killer 2.0 the search was on for similar articles and comments on the web. It was quite easy to find articles around the web 2.0 design trend but only a small number of them actually got that web 2.0 was not an actual design trend. Or is it? Wrong or right, do the masses make it true? If enough people say it is true does that mean that it is? It certainly does to those who are using these blogs for research. People trying to learn about the industry read these blogs and assume that it must be true because everyone says so but who are these people who are writing them? Are they at the top of their industry, are they even professionals in their industry at all or are they simply repeating something they read on another blog?

In a world where everyone has a blog how do you find expert advice online? Do you trust the source? Is quantity better than quality? All of these questions really depend on what type of information you are looking for and realizing that opinions are opinions and only that.