But I also see another side to this conversation, where the blogs of today will reshape the societies of tomorrow. With every new blog online it becomes an ever increasing endeavor for oppressive governments to control it’s subjects. Corporate entities will walk a straighter line knowing anything hidden will not stay that way.

So yes blogging will change shape, but at the same time change the shape of our world.

I also do agree with Michael that the bigger blogs will probably buy out some of the smaller blogs that are headed toward being bigger blogs. Creating a network of blogs makes sense and it would be much more desirable to combine a bunch of blogs that are doing great, instead of these blog networks that start up on every subject and just hire bloggers. Combine good blogs together would make a network full of passionate bloggers but still keep that community feeling and author connection that the bigger blogs suffer from.

It’s nice to think blogs are something new, but it hearkens back to the days of geocities and other personal websites. People want to share their thoughts, pictures, memories, opinions and hopes with others.

What will happen in the future? Blogs will morph with the technology. I don’t know where technology is headed 5 to 10 years ago, if I knew I’d be a millionaire, but I do blogs will follow along and be there, maybe not recognized in the same form they are today, but they’ll be none the less.

One prediction I can make is this: When I logged into my adsense the other day, I saw the most interesting things I’d seen. Adsense for Mobile Sites. Now that there is an advertising model for people to make money with mobile sites, not just the big boys have access to that market. Now everybody does. I think blogs are going find their way onto mobile phones and pdas.

Keep em coming

I think the key is that, as you say, it has to be a smooth integration. consumers are becoming increasingly savvy and don’t want to deal with ads all the time. bloggers could potentially add some sort of interactivity to ads though by running contests like this or moving to even more blogs giving reviews on products as a sort of advertisement. as long as the reviews stay honest that could grow even more than it already is now.

The future of blogging will be a combination of the following but not limited to it as new technologies surface pretty much every day.

Blogs will be social networks were like minded bloggers come together and blog towards a common purpose. They rise of vlogs or incorporated video into blog posts will also be huge.

I also believe that bloggers will more and more shy away from advertising platforms like Goggle adsense as they don’t work for the masses but more so incorporate 3rd party advertising instead.

I totally disagree with those who said that small blogs are to go and only big ones are to stay. Small blogs can and will become trend setters by using various forms of attraction marketing such as competitions and allowing others to share the blog for revenue.

Blogging after all is about passion and sharing what we know with the world, it is also about networking with others and this will always be part of the future.

Gee, I better stop now otherwise I might have to publish a book on the subject.

Monika

Popular blogs will start blog networks, buying out smaller blogs. This will progress to a point where the majority of the A-listers belong to blog networks, or are attached to various companies (Editors in either case).

At that point, blogging has truly become online journalism and people will start to wonder what the hype about the freedom of blogging was really about after all.

(And none of that applies to non-money-making blogs, because they can’t sell out. )

Maybe The Food Blog could craft a recipe and as for the main image (or also shown in subsequent images) could be product placement for (as an example) Velvetta cheese. If the recipe requires cheese this could be an example of smooth and appropriate integration of ad and content.

So here’s a brief roundup:

Large blogs will get larger, as more traffic and links go their way.

Some of the large blogs will become portals. Problogger’s new homepage, and Shoemoney’s remake are a steps in that direction.

Small blogs will make enough money for some extra change, though not to pay the bills.

Also, short posts(the style of Twitter) will become popular for personal blogs, as no one wants long posts about what you did or what your dog did.

RSS feeds will decline,and podcasts will rise,as feeds require dedicated time but podcasts can be heard, for example while driving or exercising.

Users will depend on news blogs more than online newspapers, as they have the old style whereas blogs have a refreshing style in terms of design, writing etc.

AJAX will be used for functionality in blogs, rather than design bling-blings. Mainly AJAX for user-interaction.

Designs will move away from Web 2.0 styles, as bloggers get used to requests of simple, lightweight designs with readability.

WP alternatives, notably Habari will get popular with power users.

Non-techies will get used to AdSense etc. and these schemes will become less effective.