The Current Blogosphere & Benefits to the Society

According to Technorati (2009), there are four types of bloggers currently. A survey was conducted for Technorati and they found that 72% of bloggers are hobbyists, 15% are part-timers, 9% are self-employed and only 4% are pros. TechCrunch (2009) added that professional bloggers are more prolific in 2009 because of the interactivity they get with audience and other bloggers.

Currently, the most popular blogs in America are TMZ, Gizmodo and Perez Hilton (eBizMBA, 2009). TMZ and Perez Hilton are celebrity gossip blogs and Gizmodo writes about gadgets and technology.

A screenshot of TMZ.com
Source: http://blog.vh1.com/files/2008/04/tmz-nice-stories-oprah.jpg

A screenshot of Gizmodo.com
Source: http://ryanspoon.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/powermat-retracted.png

A screenshot of PerezHilton.com
Source: http://z.about.com/d/websearch/1/0/k/L/perez_hilton.png

In Malaysia, the most influential blogs of 2007 are Kenny Sia, Sapiens Bryan and Hemmy.net (Sabahan.com, 2007). Kenny Sia is a personal blog but his posts are entertaining, whereas Sapiens Bryan blogs about technology. On the other hand, Hemmy.net is about humour.

A screeshot of KennySia.com
Source: http://julianhopkins.net/uploads/jh_pic_090409_KennySiaScreenShot_1.jpg

The statistics above already proved that readers like to read entertainment on blogs and also to discover the latest gadgets. In Malaysia, benefits of blogs to the community are such as obtaining latest information without much hassle, generating more interactivity and advertising revenues which will eventually benefit businesses, organizations and the economy. Most importantly, readers get to obtain information about what is happening with the opposition parties because mainstream media do not publish about them. For example, Lim Kit Siang's blog.



References

2009 State of the Blogosphere: The Full BlogWorld Presentation 2009, TechCrunch, viewed on 8 November 2009, http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/16/2009-state-of-the-blogosphere-the-full-blogworld-presentation/.

50 Most Influential Blogs in Malaysia 2007, Sabahan.com, viewed on 16 November 2009, http://www.sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/.

State of the Blogosphere 2009 Introduction 2009, Technorati, viewed on 8 November 2009, http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009-introduction.

Top 25 Most Popular Blogs 2009, eBizMBA, viewed on 16 November 2009, http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/blogs.