Blog as Current Phenomenon & Benefit to the Community

Blogs are Pervasive

Wikipedia defines the Blogosphere “is the collective community of all blogs. They may be seen as interconnected and socially networked. Discussions "in the Blogosphere" have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues”. (Technorati: State of blogosphere, 2008).

“There have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the Blogosphere”. (Technorati: State of blogosphere, 2008). However, it is hard to estimate because blogs are everywhere and become part of our life. Nowadays, blogs have become as global phenomenon.

Technorati tracked blogs in 81 languages in June 2008. Beside that, bloggers have been at it an average of three years and are collectively creating close to one million posts every day. Blogs have representation in top-10 web site lists across all key categories.

Trends of Blogosphere

Malaysian bloggers share the same taste as their Asian counterparts where blogs on technology, travel and music are ranked among the most popular but less popular in Europe. Most of the Europeans spend their majority time for online for personal reason. One of the main reasons is blogging. (Jeff O0i, 2006) (Microsoft Advertising, 2006)

Type of Blogs

~Personal
~Business
~Schools
~Non-profits
~Politics
~Military
~Private
~Sports
~How-to, tips and reviews

(WORDPRESS.COM)

Benefits of blogs

~To improve their income. A blog site allows people to establish trust, credibility, and thought leadership for their business. For example, establish brand awareness that will affect the buying decision of clients. (Blogsite.com, 2005)

~To expend their community, especially those who wish to find a group of people that share their same viewpoints on certain topics. (McLaughlin, 2006) By the way, the bloggers can gain new friends as well.

~Gained new information (Swammer, 2006) for example, politic, job……

References list:

Technorati, 2008, State of the blogosphere, viewed 6 November 2008
<http://www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere>

Jeff Ooi, 2006, Study: Blogging for social connections and self-expression, viewed 6 November 2008
<http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/lemaklemang/post.htm?id=61971059>

Microsoft Advertising, Social networking to drive next wave of internet usage, 2006, viewed 6 November 2008
<http://advertising.microsoft.com/europe/NewsAndEvents/PressRelease.aspx?Adv_PressReleaseID=160>

WORDPRESS.COM, Types of blogs, viewed 6 November 2008
<http://wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/>

Teh Phoey Lee Phoebe, 2007, An insight of blogosphere over the internet, School of Management and Information Technology, UCSI, viewed 6 November 2008,<http://www.ucsi.edu.my/jasa/3/papers/AC8.pdf>