clipped from mashable.com

Trendspotting at BlogWorldExpo: What’s Next in Blogging and Social Media?

This past weekend, much of the Mashable team descended on Las Vegas for the second annual BlogWorldExpo.

Along the way, much was gleamed about the current state of the blogosphere and social media, and where it all might be heading in the months and years ahead. The official BlogWorldExpo site has tons of links to coverage around the Web, but here were the major trends spotted by Team Mashable:

Users Own The Comments, Not Bloggers

Widgets Are Evolving Into Web Rings 2.0

Everyone is Launching an Ad Network

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter

Blogs Are Increasingly Becoming Mainstream Media and Vice Versa

Numerous widget providers at BWE were offering publishers ways to improve their page views – either by syndicating their content elsewhere or by doing a better job of driving intrasite traffic.

“opportunities abound for niche publishers.”