By: Greg Mitchell A study released Sunday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project at least partly confirms the year-end hype: 2004 was (among other things) the Year of the Blog.
Pew polled Internet users and found that blog readership increased 58% between February and November 2004. And by November, 27% of 120 million adult Internet users claimed to visit blogs, up from 17% nine months earlier.
Not only that, but Pew also found that 7% of online users, or 8 million Americans, had created their own blogs, up from 3% in 2002. And more and more Americans are posting comments on blogs.
On the other hand, the study discovered that 62% still have no clear idea what a blog actually is. (One imagines this includes even some of the users.)
"The story is, blogs are catching on," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & Amercian Life Project. "Not just on the creator side, but also on the demand side. Blog readership took off in 2004."
Breaking down blog creators, Pew found that 57% are male and 48% are under 30.
"The election year drew awareness to political blogs, which then spilled over into other areas," Rainey said. Blogs related to the tsunami disaster have probably stirred new interest.
The Pew study also found that 5% of American online users, or 6 million people, consume news and information through RSS or XLM aggregators, a trend that Rainey expects will grow in 2005.
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