Blogs certainly have not caught on the way blog advocates thought. A Gallup poll says only 9% of Internet users read one regularly, and those numbers have not changed in a year. In Internet time, that's a very long time.
I have always been more interested in the technology that enables blogging, rather than the blogging itself. The weak link in blogging is the writing.
The fact that it is easy to blog does not automatically make us all bloggers. Good bloggers are good writers, have something to say, and are able to say it in a way that is of interest to more than their immediate family and friends (a very fickle audience at that).
But as blogging has become common, the tools to blog have also become much better, and are having effects on other parts of the Internet and the Web. It turns out blogging tools are perfect for newspapers, who usually have a few good writers sitting around drinking coffee, smoking, and chasing interns. More and more papers are finding out blogging tools are part of the answer to their question, "How do we move the paper to the Web?"
And almost anyone who maintains a Web site for community, civic, or personal use can do it better and with less effort using blogging tools, even if the site itself is, strictly speaking, not a blog.
Blogs are not going away, and the number of blogs will probably shrink to a number that is more representative of good writers, rather than who spent five minutes setting up a free blog site.
We still have only barely scratched the surface of how technology and the Web can enhance and improve community life. There is still much to do and many opportunities to pursue. Blogging and vlogging (video blogs) will play a part.