Alive & Thriving, Part Deux

Susan's comments on my post regarding blogs is very interesting to me although I'm not sure I agree. Susan is no newbie to blogging and is the author of the very fine blog  Illusive Life but I see a great deal of sense in Gary Goldhammer's  comments about the dynamic of blogs shifting from novelty to utility.

In fact the Technorati  numbers support the continued exponential growth of the blog world with 19.6 million blogs being curently registered and 70,000 new ones added each day which equates to 1 new blog per second. The growth rate has been such that the number of blogs is doubling every five months. Tim Porter has a really interesting Power Point presentation with these numbers on his blog First  Draft 

The interesting twist that may support Susan's comment and Gary's view in a way is that only a bit more than half of the new blogs are still active after 90 days. That seems like an awfully high drop out rate to me but perhaps the 45% that drop off the active list are reflective of Gary's thesis of the shift from novelty to utility.

Comments

[Susan]

While I understand the concept that blogs are popping up everywhere, it is the fact that most blogs are started and then dropped weeks, and months after because the person loses interest and decides that it isn't something that they are really interested in keeping up.

There is also the fact that blogging has changed from what it was at one point in time - blogs used to be for the typical person who wrote their thoughts and interests out in what was actually an online journal, before the advent of "blogging", many of us used the same software that is now used in the blogging world...and my point is, tons of blogs promote their political views, world news, and other such stuff that a lot of people really are not interested in...even companies are now using blog software to update employees...

I guess those are the types of blogs that I wouldn't read on a daily occasion, I like the more personal approach.

If this comment seems distracted...blame my husband, he was talking to me in mid-thought! =)

[Jim Brodhead]

Thanks for the elaboration, Susan. Your points are interesting ones and expecially so in that they underline the broad range of reasons for blogging. Now that you mention it, I am wondering what the drop out rate was when blogs were in fact more oriented towards the personal journal.