“B” for Blog and Blogging

B - The Current Phenomenon
Weblog also known as blog is part of the Internet and just like the Internet, blogging had emerged into a worldwide phenomenon. According to Technorati (2008), there are more than 175000 blogs created daily and there are over 18 updates a second. The size of blogosphere is growing.

Size Of Blogosphere per day for the last 30 days

Kaddell (2005) stated that “blog” was the most searched for definition at Merriam-Webster.com whereby blog refers to ‘a web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer’.

There are many types of blog and all these form different trends at different places. In Europe, ‘blogging… has less than half the popularity it enjoys in America’ and around 30% of Britain youngster ‘had never heard of blogs’ (Brook 2006). However, blog on political life is important in Europe and United States whereby ‘more than a quarter of the readers… spurred to political or civic action’ (Mackenzie 2006). Just the same in Malaysia, political blog is very important. Some of the political blogs are:
Dr Mahathir Mohamad
Harapan Baru Untuk Malaysia
Lim Kit Siang
Rocky’s Bru
Screenshots

In the Asia, people blog because they are driven by the 'need to express themselves and to maintain and build social connections' (PRNewswire 2006). 81% Malaysian blogs for the purpose of 'sharing their lives with family and friends' (Jeff Ooi 2006). Here, we can see that blog has become a platform for the society to keep in touch with one another and for people to express themselves.
You can read more on Malaysia’s blogosphere at Microsoft Press Pass.

While, political blog in Malaysia has provided the citizens with more in depth information about the political agendas as the mainstream media rarely report about the Opposition. Through blogs, Malaysian are kept inform of current developments and also information and knowledge of many other fields. Blog can also be a platform for people to earn money.
You can visit 10 Big Benefits of A Busy Business Blog for more information.

References
Brook, S 2006, Blogs struggle to impress in UK, media release 20 June 2006, Guardian, viewed 4 November 2008, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jun/20/pressandpublishing.newmedia>.

Jeff Ooi 2006, Study: Blogging for social connections and self-expression, viewed 4 November 2008, <http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/lemaklemang/post.htm?id=61971059>.

Mackenzie, K 2006, European bloggers find their voice, media release 10 October 2006, Financial Times, viewed 4 November 2008, <http://www.scribd.com/doc/2184345/Italia-SW-sul-Financial-Times>.

PRNewswire 2006, Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia, viewed 4 November 2008, <http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE>.

Technorati 2008, Welcome to Technorati, viewed 4 November 2008, <http://technoratimedia.com/about/>.