RSS & Blogging. All over or just getting going?

19th September 2007

I’ve been reading a few sites recently that say that blogging may have peaked and that people are “all blogging less”.

Looking at my Bloglines account would suggest that we’re at the beginning, not the end, of the growth curve.

For example, Free Exchange is the blog of the Economist. It covers trade, development and economics. It’s pithy and contrary, like the Economist. It should be a really popular blog. On Bloglines it has just 49 subscribers.

The Football Gossip and Transfers page of the BBC website is the sort of content that RSS was invented for, but people don’t use it. It has just 38 subscribers on Bloglines.

Comparing these numbers to other sites in my account puts these numbers in context. Signal v Noise has over 5,000 Bloglines readers. Kottke.org has over 13,000.

I like these blogs, but in terms of mainstream appeal they aren’t up comparable with premiership gossip. They’re specialist.

Bloglines isn’t the whole market, but it’s an indicator.

Another indicator is that Gawker Media (a blog network) is comparable in size to the online presence of a major US newspaper group.

gawker stats

Blogging isn’t shiny and new anymore, but it’s a long way from its peak. RSS is a long way from being a mainstream technology. Big media companies have yet to build RSS into their marketing. Using a feed reader is still not a the way most people think about accessing websites.

Some people still think it’s a good time to start an independent blog network. Of course they’re right.

Because as Ann, commenting on this blog said “most of my friends are only now understanding what a blog IS….”