PhotoDude.com

Wed. Sep 03, 2003

Internet Giants Catch on to Blogs

Internet Giants Catch on to Blogs – This article about weblogs (yes, another one) points out both the future hype and the current facts.

The Dream: “Blogging is becoming mainstream.”

“America Online, the Internet behemoth, began offering blogging to its users in August. At the same time, Yahoo started experimenting with blogs on its Korean Web site and is believed to be considering expanding the service elsewhere in its vast network. Google and Lycos began offering blogging earlier this year.”

The Reality: “The blogging community is still relatively small. Only 2 percent of online households visit a blog site once a week or more, according to a survey released last month by Forrester Research, a market research firm.”

“In fact, a big portion of the respondents, 79 percent, had never even heard of blogging before the survey.”

Those are some appropriately humbling statistics to keep in mind. It may feel great to have a few hundred people read your words every day, but in terms of the “mass awareness,” we collectively rank somewhere slightly above the now passe “flash mob.”

And if you don’t know what a “flash mob” is, well, that’s exactly my point.