Gordon (2006) defines a weblog as a diary or journal like website. Technorati (2008) defines the blogosphere as a system of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers for the purpose of journalism and communication.
However, as the size of the blogosphere continues to rise, the distinction between a blog and a mainstream media site becomes ambiguous (Technorati, 2008). Gordon (2006) distinguishes blogs from message boards, forums and newsgroup by stating that only the author of a blog is permitted to post entries while readers are confined to commenting on individual posts.
A research done by Universal McCann shows that 184 million people worldwide have started a blog while 346 million read blogs- that is 77% of active Internet users worldwide! eMarketer reveals that half of the Internet users in the US (94.1 million people) are blog readers (Technicrati, 2008).
A report done by Windows Live Spaces, arguably the world’s largest blogging site indicated that the blogging phenomenon is inevitably sweeping across Asia in Malaysia (Women rule in Malaysian blogosphere, 2006). The results shown in Blogging Malaysia: A Windows Live Report revealed that the primary motive for Malaysians to blog is to share their lives and interest with friends and family (Women rule in Malaysian blogosphere, 2006).
With the majority of the Malaysian internet population now blogging , this popular activity is slowly consuming a large proportion of time users spend online. Subsequently, business companies, advertisers and politicians who cleverly utilize blogs to promote their interests will reap multiple benefits (Women rule in Malaysian blogosphere, 2006).
Bloggers, www.cbc.ca
Reference List
Gordon, S. 2006, Rise of the blog, IEEE Review, March 2006, viewed 10th November 2008, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezlibproxy1.unisa.edu.au/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1611141&isnumber=33843
State of the blogosphere 2008, Technorati, viewed 10th November 2008, http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere
Women rule in Malaysian blogosphere 2006, Microsoft Press Pass, Microsoft, viewed 10th November 2008, http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2006/linkpage4337.mspx
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