Classification of Blogs

Blogs can be categorized according these four categories:

• Subject matter: entertainment, sports and travel.
• Media type: Vlog, Photolog, Podcast and Tumbleblog.
• Device: Moblog, Sketchlog.
• Status of Publisher-:business and corporate blog.

                            

 Flickr: an example of a Moblog.  Flickr was launched in 2004 and by April 2005 it had 270,000 users. (Naughton. J, 2006,p. 8) 
Image Source: http://blog.flickr.net/en

According to Sun et al. (2007,p. 308), classification of blogs are difficult because of the user generated content, a blogger may write any topic of his/her interest and the dynamic nature of blogs. There are blogs which combine many subjects and medias, which makes it difficult to classify it. Farrington (2009), has classified blogs into four types, which are quite simple and easy to understand. Below are the three types:

Personal blogs

A blog which comprises of personal likings, emotions, experiences and reviews irrespective of the topic.

Example of a famous Personal Blog in Malaysia

Source: http://www.yasminthestoryteller.blogspot.com/

Corporate blogs

These are blogs that are published by a particular organization to achieve organizational goals.

Source: http://www.liver.org.my/

Professional Blogs

These blogs are reader centric, which is created to share expertise and knowledge to a certain industry or on a specific topic. 

An example of a professional blog

Source: http://www.kitchenhintsandtips.com/

Micro Blogs

These blogs have brief text posts or micro media such as photos, audio clips, and so forth. Some of the most notable examples of micro blogging feature providers are www.twitter.com , www.tumbler.com , www.plurk.com.

Example of a Microblog.

Source: www.tumbler.com

Author and media analyst Margaret Simons (2007), has given names to define 9 different types of blogs:

• Pamphleteering Blogs
• Digest Blog
• Advocacy Blog
• Popular Mechanics Blog
• Exhibition Blog
• Diary
• Advertisement
• News Blog

Simons used more terminology words to name the type of blog, while I find Farringdons classification approach more encompassing as he has included micro-blogging as well in his classifications. I would say classification according to subject is more preferable.

References:
* Simons, M 2008, A taxonomy of blogs, ABC Media Report, viewed 18 November 2009,  http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2372882.htm#transcript

*Sun, A, Suryanto, M.A & Liu, Y 2007, 'Blog Classification Using Tags: An Empirical Study', Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

*Naughton, J 2006, ‘Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem’, viewed on 26 September 2010, http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html

*Farrington, R 2008, "Different Types of Blogs", Article Monkeys, viewed 26 September 2010,
http://www.articlemonkeys.com/Different-Types-Of-Blogs-8430.html

* http://www.junjowebdesign.com/junjo-blog-design.html