State_of_the_Blogosphere Archives

Belated â State of the Blogosphere 2

May 12, 2006 by Liz

Move Over English

Though I was at a conference, then deathly sick (note the use of hyperbole), when David Sifry came out with his State of the Blogosphere Part 2 — On Language and Tagging, think there is still important data here to get reported for the record. David’s ability to cut through information on the index of 37.3 million blogs to bring coherent thought to the table is a gift he shares several times a year and we should take advantage of it to get the big picture of how our lives are changing.

For this post, I choose to focus on the analysis of the language data.

David Speaks

He begins by offering a few disclaimers about the data set he’s about to offer. Three important caveats he reminds us to keep in the foreground when studying his data.

First that the automated language software they use may not be perfect and my over- or undercount a particular language or group of languages, due to bugs wthin the software. He follows that comment with a statement that Technorati, however, still feels fairly confident in its reliability across the millions of blogs and posts they index each day.
One part of the blogosphere, Mr. Sifry is certain that is being under-reported is posts and blogs written in Korean. This is due to the fact that the main services are not indexed by Technorati at this time. A second that is being undercounted to a lesser degree is French language blogs and posts, because Technorati has not yet got a good system for indexing skyblog.
This third caveat is that Japanese bloggers write shorter posts. This could be due to their predilection to posting from mobile telephone. This fact could be skewing the results of the data that follows making the numbers higher, as the data tracks quantity of posts not length.

Within these caveats, Dave Sifry aso offers this invitation,

if anyone at these (or other) blogging services is interested in being indexed, please drop me a line.

[Read more…]

Blogosphere Is Now 35.3 Million

April 17, 2006 by Liz

State of the Blogosphere April 2006

David Sifry posted State of the Blogosphere, April 2006 Part 1: On Blogosphere Growth at the Technorati Weblog today. It’s only been 3 months since David’s last report, and the blogosphere hasn’t shown any signs of slowing–in fact, it continues to double every six months. New weblogs are created at the rate of one per second. That’s one now, and now, and now, and now. AND I TYPE REALLY FAST.

A new word gets coined in this report, I’ll let Mr. Sifry do it himself. Of those that derive from spam, I think this might be my favorite.

There has been an increase in the overall noise level in the blogosphere during 2006, but aside from a few notable spam storms (“sporms”? Just how far can you take this naming system?) noted in red in the chart above, the high level of interesting, original content being created greatly outweighs the fake or duplicate content listed on splogs.

The Facts:

Technorati now tracks over 35.3 Million blogs
The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months
It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

David Sifry does a remarkable job of providing useful information to bloggers. I use this data regularly to help friends, family, and business clients to understand what blogs are and what impact blogs are having on the Internet and the world we live in.

Who needs this information to understand what you do? How might you package these facts to promote your business? . . . to help your clients promote theirs?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

David Sifry Writes about the Future–Janice Myint Please Don’t Read It

February 7, 2006 by Liz

David Sifry posted The State of the Blogosphere–Part 1 at the Technorati Weblog today. This post is research and analysis at its finest. The post is deep, broad, and replete with solid information, graphic visuals, and links to take you even deeper. Anyone who wants to understand the blogosphere should read it.

The information and analysis in this post will serve you in your online business. It will serve you as a student. It will serve you in casual conversation–when a friend wants to discuss the future of the Internet, or when someone tries to tell you all blogs are trashy online diaries.

Just a few notes–a taste–from the summary.

Technorati now tracks over 27.2 Million blogs

The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months

It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago

On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day

13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created

Spings (Spam Pings) can sometimes account for as much as 60% of the total daily pings Technorati receives

I sure hope Janice Myint doesn’t read it. Any Customer Service Team Leader at Technorati has enough to worry about. This post could be just overwhelming. Janice we still need you . . . please keep going. (When I went to check the link on this post, I got the “Sorry we are unable to complete your search right now . . .” message. At least now I know why.)

Everyone else go read it. This is stuff you can’t buy at any price and you won’t get in business school. The name of this post is State of the Blogosphere–Part 1. But it tells the future.

–ME “Liz” Strauss