Blog as current phenomenon & benefits to the community

Ever since the introduction of blogs in internet, more and more internet users starting to join various of blog sites, such as xanga, blogger and wordpress. No doubt the size of the blogosphere is increasing as time goes by. According to data provided by Technorati, since 2004 they have been studying the increasing rate of the size and the trend of the latest blogosphere. In the latest report, which is the State of Blogosphere 2009 report, it stated that the photosphere today made out of hobbyists (72%) and professional bloggers (10%), while 2/3 of the bloggers are male. (2009) Since 2002, the amount of blogs indexed by Technorati raised up to 133,000,000 blogs. (Singer, A. 2009) Below is a chart from the State of Blogosphere 2009 report, showing the statistics of bloggers’ age and gender.

stats of bloggers' age and gender

source : www.technorati.com

stats of time spent on blogging
source : www.technorati.com

According to Autumn Morris, the latest blogging trends around the globe are such as Blogger and Wordpress, who’s bloggers increase rapidly in years. She also stated that new sites like Tumblr and Posterous are gaining audiences rapidly too. (2010) In 2008, most Malaysians are blogging at Wordpress with more than 1.5 Million users. (Santosa, L. 2009)

average percentage of blog types.
source : http://modernl.com/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends

Based on the statistics by Stuart Brown in 2006, the top 3 prevalent blog types are technology, politics and general blogs. In Malaysia, the most prevalent blog will be personal, technology and politic blogs. (2007) Taking political blogs as example, the beneftis from prevalent blogs to the community is that, bloggers are free to voice out freely regarding political issues without restrictions. (Catone, J. 2008) Besides, politicians are also free to give opinions on blogs, where internet is a world without boundaries, news can spread faster.

Reference List

1. Sussman, M. 2009, 'SOTB 2009 Day 1: Who are The Bloggers?' Technorati, 19 October, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/day-1-who-are-the-bloggers1/ >

2. McLean, J. 2009, 'SOTB 2009 Introduction.' Technorati, 19 October, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction/ >

3. Singer, A. 2009, 'Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats,' 12 January, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/12/social-media-web-20-internet-numbers-stats/ >

4. Morris, A. 2010, '2010 Blogging Trends: There's Only Enough Room in the Blogosphere for the 144 Million of Us,' 5 August, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2010-blogging-trends-blog-growth-statistics/ >

5. Santosa, L. 2009, 'Malaysia: Emerging Trends in Social Media,' 15 November, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://comm215.wetpaint.com/page/Malaysia%3A+Emerging+Trends+in+Social+Media >

6. Brown, S. 2006, 'Leading Average: Top Blog Trends,' 12 November, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://modernl.com/article/leading-average-top-blog-trends >

7. Catone, J. 2008, 'In Malaysia, Bloggers Become Politicians,' 26 February, viewed 25 September 2010 < http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/malaysian_bloggers_become_politicians.php >