Friday, August 31, 2007

Blogs and Bloggers Important - Blogging NOT

Well if that just isn't the most cryptic sort of blog title. While cruising the feedreader last week I stumbled upon a similar analysis using Google Trends, however I can't remember who it was. I'm sorry to not link to you. (In the great world of blogging I will pay it forward with several unnecessary linktributions.)

But i found this little graphic interesting. While Blog(s) and Blogger(s) are gaining in popularity...


...the act of blogging itself is not growing much at all.

Am I reading too much into this? Perhaps we don't even need to read into it and we simply accept it for what it is. Many people love to CONSUME, but much fewer have the desire to CREATE.
I'm just sayin'!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hehehe I love how people are using Google Trends to make highlight popularity. Ok, so not reading too much into - Google Trends is based on the term being used when you google a term.

So my thoughts are people are more likely to use the term blog when they are searching for a blog on blogs relating to specific topic or possibly blogger if they were searching for information on a person on help using blogger. I know if I want to find a persons blog I use the search term blog and their name.

No surprise really they are less likely to use the search term blogging. However if you look at popularity of blogging tags - I think you will find blogging tags is more popular than blog.

I don't think you can use these trends to then say the act of blogging itself is not growing much. Just as people should not be using Google Trends to say that podcasting is decreasing in popularity. :) However it is fun to think about what these Trends show, and makes for a fun post :).

Sue

thcrawford said...

I might word it just slightly differently. Many people love to CONSUME, but much fewer have the desire to CREATE in this way. I think almost everybody has the desire to create...the desire to express themselves, their views, their ideas...the desire to make something that's wholly theirs. Almost everybody I've met has some form of expression like this. For some it's crafts or gardening, for others is painting or music, and for others it's writing or raising children. How it expresses itself can vary pretty widely, but I think most people have the desire to create. Just my thoughts.

bschlenker said...

I totally agree with you Sue AND Tom.
I love the 2 different channels of thought that you each take on the topic.
It is kindof silly to make assumptions based on terms people search, but it makes for interesting conversation. It was mostly just for fun. Kind of like "things that make you go hmmm".
However, there is a conversation occuring around the consumption vs. participation idea: 90, 9, 1 percent.
90 percent consume, 9 percent comment a little, 1 percent participate heavily...or something like that. don't quote me ;-)

Anonymous said...

You have got it correct Brent - the participation rate. I refer back to it a lot when I reflect on the use of Web 2.0 in education and I like Derek Wenworth's model of the 4Cs; where he talks about people's online journey and perhaps it is unrealistic to expect a consumer to suddenly become a producer.

ROFL amazing how a tongue in cheek post on blogging, can end up discussing deeper issues.

Sue