Blogging As A Current Phenomenon

The size and vastness of the blogging world is ever expanding and revolving. I provide now some mind boggling stats to drive the 
point home.

ClickZ, an online news site reports that David Sifry, Technorati's chief executive, the current number of blogs is now over eight times bigger than the 500,000 blogs it measured in June, 2003. The company tracked 3 million blogs as of the first week of July, and has added over 1 million blogs to its stable since then. Meanwhile, Pew Internet & American Life reports that a survey shows that blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users.

In the Malaysian context, the Malaysian communities have it all to gain from the blogging
trend. TheStar Newspaper has reported that Malaysia has about 500,000 active bloggers, ranking the country among the highest in the world after Indonesia and the European Union. Internet Marketing Blog Asia reports an interesting snippet that 64% of local bloggers are
female and out of this, 74 per cent of them are in the age group of 25 years old and below.

In the political arena, we have seen political motivated blogs springing up like mushrooms after the rain particularly after the recent Malaysian elections where even our Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Badawi admitted that his party has overlooked the influence of the bloggers. Famous political bloggers such as Jeff Ooi and Raja Petra the founder of Malaysia Today, are now seen as the main focal point for news gatherer desiring something other than
the conventional news offered by mainstream newspaper.

Malaysia Today, a popular source of news.

According to NevilleHobson.com, Reuters reported that 37 percent of US bloggers cited their
life and experiences as their primary topic, while politics and government came in second at 11 percent. Comparing this to the Malaysian context, an online article by Sabahan.com shows that
the top 10 most visited blogs consisted of a fine mix between politics, entertainment and technology. This shows that different continents offers different

Reference List:

1) 50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia 2007, Sabahan.com, viewed on 1st May 2008
     http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/

2) Hobson, N 2006, Latest blog trends from Pew Internet, Viewed on 27 April 2008
     http://www.nevillehobson.com/2006/07/19/latest-blog-trends-from-pew-internet/

3) Lina, Mag 2006, Malaysia Internet Marketing - How Malaysia is catching up to the      Blogging Trends? viewed on 24 April 2008
     http://www.eonenet.com/internet_marketing_blog/2006/12/14/how-malaysia-is-     catching-up-to-the-blogging-trends/

4) McGann, R 2004, The Blogosphere By the Numbers, viewed on 27 April 2008
     http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3438891

5) Rainie, L 2005, The State of Blogging, viewed on 2 May 2008
     http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/144/report_display.asp

6) TheStar Online, Blogging in Malaysia ranks among highest in the world, viewed on 2 May      2008
     http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/3/nation/20827588&sec=nation