State of the Blogosphere 2010

The word blog is a contraction of the words web and log [1a]. Wikipedia says the word weblog was coined in 1997, and blog in 1999. Of course blog is used as a noun (i.e. the blog itself) or an verb (i.e. to add content to a blog). The universe of blogs has become known as the blogosphere [1b]. Blogosphere was coined as a joke in 1999, and reappeared with a serious meaning in 2002. The current number of blogs in the blogosphere’s unknown. But in December 2007 blog search engine Technorati was tracking over 112 million blogs. Each year since 2004 Technorati’s put out a State of the Blogosphere [SOTB] report. Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it published the three parts of its 2010 report respectively ‘Introduction [2a] and WHO (Bloggers, Brands and Consumers’ [2b]; ‘WHAT (Topics and Trends)’ [2c]; and ‘HOW (Traffic, Technology and Revenue)’ [2d]. The methodology’s hard to understand [3]. The 7,205 responders were self-selected – and so not representative. Thus SOTB’s results can’t be extrapolated to the blogosphere at large. Set against this major caveat, the findings aren’t surprising. Not to me, anyway. But I’m pleased the 2010 SOTB documents a continuing trend from mainstream media to the blogosphere. Finally, I must say I didn’t find the 2010 SOTB report user friendly. These summaries [4a, 4b] are much more digestible. Ho hum.