Comparison of Blogs for Structural

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Comparison of Blogs for Structural Content
Similarities (CBSCS)
INLS 180-001 Human Information Interaction Fall
2002 Term Project Angelique Jenks-Brown
ajenks_at_email.unc.edu Jewel Ward
wardj_at_ils.unc.edu 4 December 2002
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CBSCS Outline

• Brief History
• Purpose of the Investigation
• Data Gathering Methods
• Structural Analysis
• Content Analysis
• Conclusions

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CBSCS Brief History

• History
• Filter Style
• Blog Style
• Terminology

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CBSCS Purpose of the Investigation

• To determine if content and structure
• varies by blog software type.
• Proprietary (Xanga)
• Open Source (LiveJournal)
• Independent (Homemade or Freeware/Shareware

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CBSCS Data Gathering Methods

• Forty Blogs
• 13 Xanga
• 13 LiveJournal
• 14 Independent
• Two Categories of Analysis
• Content
• Structural

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CBSCS Data Gathering Methods (cont.)
Content Categories
99 (20) out of 484 sub-categories were used
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CBSCS Data Gathering Methods (cont.)
Structural Categories
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CBSCS Demographics Average Age by Blog Type
Excludes blogs that did not provide an age.
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CBSCS Demographics Gender of Users
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CBSCS Structure - User Profile Provided
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CBSCS Structure Average Number of Posts
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CBSCS Structure - Average Number of Posts by
Gender
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CBSCS Structure Method of Interactivity by
Blog Type
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CBSCS Structure Outward Links by Blog Type
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CBSCS Content Broad Categories Used by Blogs
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CBSCS Content - Top 10 Sub-categories
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CBSCS Analysis - Differences

• Age varies by blog software type
• User Profile
• Independents provide technical info in the user
  profile
• Xanga and LJ provide personal info
• Posts
• Independent bloggers write more content
• LJ bloggers make the most posts

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CBSCS Analysis Differences (cont.)

• Interactivity
• Independents dont use guest books
• Xanga users dont use web forms
• Outward Links
• LJ bloggers always link to other blogs web sites

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CBSCS Analysis Differences (cont.)

• Broad Categories
• Xanga bloggers posted the least in every
  category except
• Social Science
• Independents posted the most in every broad
  category
• except for Society Culture and Health

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CBSCS Analysis Differences (cont.)

• Sub-categories
• LJ and Xanga have the same top 5 except for
• Shopping Services and Sports
• Independents top 5 are completely different
  from LJ
• Xanga, except for Music
• Observation
• Independent blogs archives went back years
• Xanga blogs were typically just a few months old

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CBSCS Analysis - Similarities

• User profiles created by all bloggers
• Women post more often than men
• All 14 Yahoo! broad categories were used
• All blogs posted the most in Society Culture,
• Entertainment, and Arts

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CBSCS Conclusion
Content does vary by type of blog softwarebut
we think its because of the age group of the
bloggers, not the software. The independent
(older) bloggers tend to follow the filter style
of web logs, with many links out in their posts.
The LJ and Xanga (newer) bloggers post journals
of day-to-day activities.