Perseus Development released a blogging survey which the New York Times covered in Blog Bog? The results were both saddening and promising at the same time. Of 4 million blogs currently, fully two thirds were inactive (not updated for two months) and one million contained only one entry and were abandoned. But, 50,000 blogs were updated every day and there were over 1.5 million active blogs last year. Next year, that number will more than double to 3.3 million; and in 2004 the number will nearly double again to nearly 6 million.
The article notes that the survey only covers blogs on hosted sites (like TP & Blogger.com). Personally hosted sites (like all MT blogs) were not included in the results.
No wonder Bill Gates has pronounced blogging ‘important’ and the chief of NYTimes.com attended Bloggercon 2003. But the question is: what will they do with that judgment? Will they do something constructive that advances the course of blogging or will they stunt blogging in the guise of bringing it to the masses?
We’re riding the crest of a wave. The possibilities right now seem almost limitless. I just hope the wave takes us to wonderful places and doesn’t slam us into the trough.