Posted on 01/04/2005 4:52:17 PM PST by traumer
Americans are becoming avid blog readers, with 32 million getting hooked in 2004, according to new research. The survey, conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, showed that blog readership has shot up by 58% in the last year.
Some of this growth is attributable to political blogs written and read during the US presidential campaign.
Despite the explosive growth, more than 60% of online Americans have still never heard of blogs, the survey found.
Blogs, or web logs, are online spaces in which people can publish their thoughts, opinions or spread news events in their own words.
Companies such as Google and Microsoft provide users with the tools to publish their own blogs.
Getting involved
The rise of blogs has spawned a new desire for immediate news and information, with six million Americans now using RSS aggregators.
BLOGGING IN AMERICA Blog readership has shot up by 58% in 2004 Eight million have created a blog 27% of online Americans have read a blog 5% use RSS aggregators to get news and other information 12% of online Americans have posted comments on blogs Only 38% of online Americans have heard about blogs RSS aggregators are downloaded to PCs and are programmed to subscribe to feeds from blogs, news sites and other websites.
The aggregators automatically compile the latest information published online from the blogs or news sites.
Reading blogs remains far more popular than writing them, the survey found.
Only 7% of the 120 million US adults who use the internet had created a blog or web-based diary.
Getting involved is becoming more popular though, with 12% saying they had posted material or comments on other people's blogs. Just under one in 10 of the US's internet users read political blogs such as the Daily Kos or Instapundit during the US presidential campaign.
Kerry voters were slightly more likely to read them than Bush voters.
Blog creators were likely to be young, well-educated, net-savvy males with good incomes and college educations, the survey found.
This was also true of the average blog reader, although the survey found there was a greater than average growth in blog readership among women and those in minorities.
The survey was conducted during November and involved telephone surveys of 1,324 internet users.
Let's see...that's one reader for every blog in America.
this may be of interest
the freep machine is not technically a blog. Its a chat room for us girls.
bump
"Kerry voters were slightly more likely to read them than Bush voters "
And the hint is....
"doesn't mention Freepers)"
That's because you are not allowed to say "bloody bugging freepers" in polite English news papers.
However the Page 3 girl is still OK.
We are not a blog; bloggers come HERE to read and then post on their blogs.
Correct! FR is not a blog, even for us guys!
Also, many bloggers come here to read, post on their blogs and then come back to post their blogs here and get people to go to their blogs.
Precisely.
And never, ever give us credit for our ideas.
LOL I have to get a glass of wine and read your post slowly ;-)
The new MSM tactic against Free Republic is simply not acknowledging our existence. Fools :)
Odd, so do I.
I don't know what you're talking about
(two minutes later, posted on my blog: "Howlin says Bloggers Post from FreeRepublic"...)
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