a. Blogs as Current Phenomenon and Benefits to the Community

As posted in Technorati by Sussman (2010), people blog for one of three distinct reasons: speaking one’s mind, sharing expertise and experiences with family and friends, and making money or doing business. Blogger’s use of and engagement with various social media tools is expanding, and the lines between blogs, micro-blogs and social networks are disappearing (Sobel, 2010). This is true as social networks are greatly used as a blog promoting tool. Users of Facebook and Twitter are constantly using the network to promote their blogs. The significant growth in technology also prompted the changes and increases in blogging. People no longer need to face a computer to blog; they could blog while on the go with their mobile phones. Blogging has suddenly been made easier. This is why by the end of the year 2010, a total number of 152 million blogs could be found on the internet (Pingdom, 2011).

According to Blog Shop (2010), Malaysia has only a small group of people that uses credit card and shops online. Blog shopping has become an option for non-online shoppers and has thus started to gain popularity among the people. Another reason why blog shopping is so popular is because it is easy to implement (Blog Shop, 2010). The blogs owner will promote products with prices and payment method and other essential details. Potential customers who are interested in the product can contact the blog owner for further inquiry, making it a safer way of shopping without even being there. In certain countries, political blogs plays a major role when the media is unable to reach out to the audience. In Malaysia, political blogs like Malaysiakini is a source for the people who want uncensored news. Blogs like these gives the people more options for news.

Adelaine

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Reference List

Blog Shop, 2010, Blog Shopping Trend, viewed 20 August 2011, http://blogshop.my/blog-shop/blog-shopping-trend.html

Pingdom, 2011, Internet 2010 in numbers, viewed 20 August 2011, http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/01/12/internet-2010-in-numbers/

Sobel, J 2010, ‘State of the Blogosphere 2010 Introduction’, Technorati, viewed 19 August 2011, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2010-introduction/

Sussman, M 2010, ‘Day 2: The What and Why of Blogging-SOTB 2009’, Technorati, viewed 19 August 2011, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-2-the-what-and-why2/