Israel discusses the Gartner Group’s chief fellow Daryl Hummer’s predictions, “that blogging would reach an apex of about 100 million bloggers worldwide around June 2007 and then level off” (Israel, 2007, para. 1). Admittedly, there is no real method to accurately count the number of people blogging on the internet.
Estimates for bloggers in China range from a low of 50 million to a high of 200 million. Add to that the number of bloggers on MSN, YAHOO, and GOOGLE. According to Israel, “MySpace will be 200 million strong by year-end” (Israel, 2007, para. 8). Most MySpace users are Internet savvy users under the age of 25.
There is no doubt that Hummer’s predictions are extremely conservative. Looks like “Blogging” is fast becoming the preferred method of communicating with others around the world. Emails limit your intended audience, but bloggers join together to comment on common interests and ideas. It appears that bloggers have found a means to collaborate with others they would otherwise not have access to in developing and discussing topics of interest to them.
Reference: Israel, S. (2007, May). Why Gartner's blog estimates are shortsighted. Communication World, pp. 48,48. Retrieved October 6, 2007, from Communication & Mass Media Complete database.
3 comments:
I agree that blogging is going to grow, and quickly! When I first began looking at blogs, about three weeks ago, I learned anything and everything can be discussed in these forums. Everything from those practicing ventriloquism to a woman who sleeps with married men (disgusting!) can be found here. Though I do not agree with all the content, I am in support of blogging. It truly is a great way for the freedom of speech to be expressed. I think wonderful things may come from it, as well. What if someone's child needs a bone marrow transplant? Can a donor be found via blogging? A lot of prayers may be answered because of this form of communication.
Anna
Anna
Just this past week, Burma closed off access to the internet to stop communications with and by people in the country. This followed protests and a violent government crackdown. Much of which has been posted on the internet and newcasts around the world. The internet offers not only the promises you indicated, but allows all of us to comment on abuses of power around the world...the world is a smaller place and getting smaller.
Alan
I as well have looked at more blogs recently and I know see that some of them are very useful for people in the fact that they are informative and can be supportive.
I still have a tendency to shy away from such sites as "My Space" for the reason that it is too personal and a lot of fluff.
Viki
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