Blogs Are Flat and Infested?

Here are a few items of interest to our blog-o-riffic world:

* "Blogs Are Now Infested With Offensive Content" (Present company excepted, of course): PC World talks about a threat analysis from an Internet security company that says up to 80 percent of blogs contain "offensive" content (which includes something as simple as swear words), and that up to six percent host active malware (stuff like viruses, trojan horse programs and spyware).

Now, if that sounds somewhat alarming, keep in mind that this is from a company that sells security solutions and the like to businesses.

* Is Blog Growth Flattening Out?: A Valleywag article suggests that the number of active blogs (as tracked by blog search service Technorati) has flattened out, after a few years of phenomenal growth.

Perhaps things are calming down after the faddish, initial rush of euphoria that surrounds any new technology, and that the dilettantes and gadflies have been weeded out (after they realize that blogging takes effort). It's hard to say.

* Following up on my entry on participation inequality, Time has article "Who's Really Participating in Web 2.0".

It mentions the "80-20 Rule", which says that 80% of your activity comes from 20% of your particpants.

Also, particularly interesting is a look at some of the demographics of Wikipedia, where older males (those over 35) make 82% of the edits on the site.

Of course, trends across the entire blogosphere shouldn't influence what any individual blogger does (one hopes), but it's interesting.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: blogging, social media, participation inequality