Blogging Bubble Bursting?

Another bubble bursts: blogs

Blog: New numbers suggest interest in blogging may be reaching a plateau. [CNET News.com - The Net]

April 27, 2007 7:29 AM PDT

Another bubble bursts: blogs

Posted by Margaret Kane

Has growth in blogging stalled?

A new article in BusinessWeek says the numbers are pointing to a plateau in active blogs. The magazine is using stats from Technorati for the analysis, which found a decline in the percentage of blogs that are active compared to the total number of blogs tracked by Technorati.

It's a familiar pattern--millions of people got excited by blogging and set up pages of their own. But after a while, they grew tired of maintaining them--or moved on to newer social phenomena like MySpace or Twitter--and let their blogs go silent. Does this mean blogging has joined the ranks of "mature" media? And is that good or bad? The bloggers who are still around are debating the issue.

Blog community response:

"Why, after all, do we do it? If we really had a good answer to that we'd be in a better position to understand why so many of us stop."

--Virtual Economics

"If the 15 million blog figure is, indeed, accurate, I'm torn. On one hand, it's disappointing to see the medium lose some of its momentum. On the other hand, the disappearance of blogging wannabes, personal diaries, etc. may be a healthy development if it raises the profile of blogs generating solid content on a regular basis."

--Mark Evans

"Interesting reporting by Green, but I see this as the inevitable shakeout that had to be coming to the blogosphere. Those that aren't committed to the space will go away, and leave less clutter for the rest of us to wade through. That makes the better blogs that continue to grow and thrive, that much easier to find, and more influential. I see that as a good thing."

--The Viral Garden

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Net Radio: Second Chance for a Fair Deal

A Reprieve For Net Radio?

Porsupah writes "The Register reports that "Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL) have headed the 'Internet Radio Equality Act,' which aims to stop the controversial March 2 decision which puts royalty of a .08 cent per song per listener, retroactively from 2006 to 2010 on internet radio," as imposed by a recent decision from the Copyright Royalty Board. "If passed, today's bill would set new rates at 7.5 percent of the webcaster's revenue — the same rate paid by satellite radio.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[Slashdot]

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Google, MySpace: China or Bust

Google aims to expand China market share
(AP)

AP - Google Inc., No. 2 in China's Web search market, is giving its local managers more autonomy and investing more in China in an effort to make up for its late entry and take the lead in the industry, CEO Eric Schmidt said Friday.

[Yahoo! News - Technology]

MySpace launches new China service
(AP)

AP - News Corp.'s popular social networking site MySpace launched a test version of its new China service on Friday, making a late entry into the intensely competitive Chinese Internet market.

[Yahoo! News - Technology]

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Wiki Nichi Wah

In Brief: Wikipedia appears on cellphones in Japan
(InfoWorld)
InfoWorld - A Japanese Web portal operator has repackaged the content of Wikipedia so it can be searched and viewed on cell phones. [Yahoo! News - Technology]

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Young Many, is THAT an iPod You are Cheating with?

Schools banning iPods to beat cheaters
(AP)

AP - Banning baseball caps during tests was obvious — students were writing the answers under the brim. Then, schools started banning cell phones, realizing students could text message the answers to each other. Now, schools across the country are targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device.

[Yahoo! News - Technology]

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Vista Security Still Struggling, Microsoft Securities Not Even a Little

Vista Security
(PC World)
PC World - Though Windows Vista may be safer than XP, Microsoft's far-from-impregnable new operating system is already proving to be vulnerable. [Yahoo! News - Technology]

Security experts still proclaim Vista a major improvement over previous Windows versions, and readily say that its important new safety features--including an improved firewall, a "Protected Mode" for Internet Explorer, and User Account Control--make it much more resistant to the most common forms of spyware and malware.

However, this latest flaw (now fixed) is a major black eye for Microsoft; along with two other critical security patches issued for Vista in its first three months on shelves, the problem has tarnished Vista's security sheen (see "Vista's Vulnerabilities" for details). The new OS may be safer, but its users must still be on their guard.

Nagging Defense

User Account Control (UAC) has the best of intentions behind it. According to Microsoft's own estimates, a whopping 95 percent of all pre-Vista Windows users perform everyday tasks logged in with Administrator credentials that let them make any kind of system changes--but that also allow malicious hackers to hijack a PC easily. By default, UAC requires a password for such tasks, keeping users--or malware--from haphazardly changing sensitive parts of the OS.

But UAC is its own worst enemy. Its frequent pop-up prompts seriously annoy many users, particularly during setup of a new machine. The prompts appear less often after about ten days of heavy use, but some early adopters have never made it that far.

Dividends UP!

Microsoft's Vista sales boost 3Q profit
(AP)

AP - Shares of Microsoft Corp. soared nearly 5 percent Friday, after the company posted a 65 percent jump in third-quarter profit, boosted by sales of its new Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007, and by upgrade coupons issued over the holidays.

[Yahoo! News - Technology]

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'$100 laptop' to cost $175
(AP)

AP - The founder of the ambitious "$100 laptop" project, which plans to give inexpensive computers to schoolchildren in developing countries, revealed Thursday that the machine for now costs $175, and it will be able to run Windows in addition to its homegrown, open-source interface.

[Yahoo! News - Technology]

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Jobs: No Subscription Any Time Soon

Steve Jobs: “People want to own their music”

Apple’s Steve Jobs, perhaps the most important person in the music industry today, says again that Apple is not planning on selling music via a subscription model like many of his competitors.

The strategy certainly makes sense as long as as Jobs continues to win territory in his war against DRM, and the subscription music services fail to lure a critical mass of consumers.

More than 2.5 billion songs have now been purchased from iTunes and they control 85% or so of the download music market. DRM free songs on iTunes cost 30 cents more, almost certainly creating greater margin for Apple per song.

The subscription music services are highly competitive, leaving little profit for the providers. As long as Apple can keep selling tracks for a dollar or more per track, they’ll resist entering this market.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

[TechCrunch]

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Dirty Blog Spotlight: TechDirt

Cheating just a little... TechDirt (http://www.techdirt.com/)

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