Success in the "Blogosphere": Exploring the Role of Technology

Weblogs have become an influential form of Web publication and communication, with leading weblog sites attracting millions of visitors, and creating considerable media hype as well as commercial value. Yet, weblog success is not easily achieved, as some research suggests that following “powerlaw” with only few weblogs achieve very high level of readership while most weblogs garner little attention by the wide community. Furthermore, according to current research, such exponential distribution of popularity leads to popular weblogs becoming even more popular while less popular ones lose further. This exploratory study sought to explore weblog success from technology aspect, i.e. from the impact of weblog-building technology (or “blogging” tool). Based on an analysis of Technorati’s top100 weblogs traced over a period of three months, we categorized weblogs by popularity and popularity change using a rank aggregation method, and evaluated the relationship between weblog success and technology use. As a result, blogging tools, classified into three generations, were found to influence weblog success, apparently as a driver of popularity growth.