An interesting research conducted by comScore Media Metrix, and sponsored in part by SixApart and Gawker Media is giving us an overall image of the Behaviors of the Blogosphere, scale, composition and activities of weblogs audiences.

The research is conducted on a panel of more than 2 million Internet users (out of which 75% are US based).  An analysis of the traffic of thousands of blogs identified some 350 top blog sites and blog networks; that list was supplemented with other popular blogs in smaller segments, such as business blogs.  The analysis also included more than two dozen large weblog hosting services, including Blogspot, Xanga, TypePad and others, which collectively represent millions of blog sites.

Key findings of the report:

• 400 blog domains tracked by comScore were visited by 50 million U.S. Internet users in Q1 2005.  This represents an increase of 45 percent compared to Q1 2004.
• Traffic to the top blog hosting services has grown considerably in the past year. Six of the top ten hosts have grown by more than 100 percent compared to last year.  Top gainers included Blogs.com (+241 percent), TypePad (+240 percent) and Blogdrive (+223 percent).
• Politcs/News weblogs are preffered by 43 percent of blog readers followed by Hipster Blogs (17%) and Tech blogs (15%), with business blogs ending the list with only 3 percent.
• Blog visitors are 30 percent more likely than the average Internet user to live in households where the household head is 18 to 34 years old and are 11 percent more likely to access the Internet using a broadband connection.

Technorati tag: Blog Readers, Blog Audience, Blogsphere

Whenever we think that things are cooling down for a while, not one, but both search engine giants jump up to remind us the war is not over yet.

Just yesterday Yahoo! announced that:

we have grown our index and just reached a significant milestone at Yahoo! Search – our index now provides access to over 20 billion items. While we typically don’t disclose size (since we’ve always said that size is only one dimension of the quality of a search engine), for those who are curious this update includes just over 19.2 billion web documents, 1.6 billion images, and over 50 million audio and video files.

Wow! That was more than double that Google index claims. Well, Google didn’t stay behind for more than just one day. As such, they (finally)

announced that starting today you’ll be able to get Google News results in two feed flavors, Atom and RSS. You can use either format in your favorite feed reader

Think that this is all? Well if rumors were spreading around that Google has plans with Instant Messaging, even since last autumn, Google took it seriously. They’re rumored to be announcing the purchase of Meetroduction, a combined IM/social networking offering that tries to combine instant messaging with the ability to find someone who’s physically near you.

This isn’t a separate instant messaging product, but one that plugs into existing IM offerings which might make a lot of sense for Google, since it wouldn’t need to build up a new userbase, Techdirt says and this seems like the sort of thing that could easily be merged with Google’s Dodgeball offering to create something that goes beyond mobile devices to instant messaging as well. Smart move indeed, I have to admin I’m looking forward into it.

Remaining in this field, of Yahoo vs. Google battle and rumors in the same time the latest buzz shaking around the blogsphere is that Skype is looking for buyers, and with this in mind, approached Yahoo! but they balked at the asking price. Price supposedly asked: $1 billion. Hmmm!! Another one to think about…

Technorati tags: Google, Yahoo, Meetro, Skype, Google News RSS

If technology was supposed to set the modern worker free, create more leisure time and make people more productive, then it has singularly failed, according to new research.

Workers in the UK are under greater pressure and work longer hours than ever because of the increasing complexity of their employer’s IT systems, the study commissioned by BT has argued.

The poll of 445 senior managers found seven out of 10 believed staff at their companies were generally under more pressure than three years ago. More than eight out of 10 (86 per cent) felt their employees also worked longer hours than three years ago.

IT systems producing too much of the “wrong sort” of data was widely blamed for this increase, with 40 per cent of those polled arguing their organisation produced far too much useless or unneeded information. Compounding this, the typical office worker also gets interrupted every three minutes by a phone call, e-mail, instant message or other distraction – but it takes about eight uninterrupted minutes for the brains to get into a really creative state.

Failing or stubborn IT systems are constantly being cited as one of the biggest stressors for many workers. The survey of more than 1,000 office workers found computers were overwhelmingly the number one cause of lost productivity, with crashes, printer jams and network problems wasting 48 minutes a day.

Technorati tag: Technology

UPDATE 2: Well, Microsoft felt like it needed to explain the new “Vista” name so here is what they say that the new version of Windows:

deserved a name that was more representative of what it specifically brings to customers.

Today, we live in a world of ‘more’ — more information, more ways to communicate, more things to do, more opportunities — and at the same time, more responsibilities. Increasingly, we all turn to our PCs to help us with that.

More on BetaNews website

UPDATE 1: Official announcement of the new Windows Vista was made today, as well as the official website launched.

Well Micrsoft was present quite often lately in the (un)official news, blogs and stuff. The latest rumor, citing sources close to the company who requested anonymity, is about the official name of the future Windows release, known until know under the codename Longhorn.

Microsoft has decided on an official name for Longhorn: Windows Vista. I find it kind of ugly, as I was really getting used (already hmmm) with the codename, but, as someone put it, it’s better than Windows 2009, right?.

Microsoft has relied primarily on date-oriented names for many of its products, although it has shied away from those on occasion. Longhorn Beta 1 is widely expected to be unveiled next week. Beta 2 is due in the first half of 2006. Microsoft officials confirmed on Thursday the final release is still on track for the latter half of 2006. Also there were more screenshots of the new Windows release flying around in the blogsphere.

Keeping on the tags, Microsoft and Beta testing, Microsoft started to send out invites to test out the new hotmail. The new hotmail site will go live within 7 days for beta testers and they will have the first peek at it. Everyone will be upgraded to 2GB when this is released with alot of new features like keyboard shortcuts for example.

Last, but not least, the new MSN Messenger 7.5 Beta, leaked out (before plan) and can be downloaded here and MSN Screen Saver (Beta) is good for download already from Microsoft website. With the MSN Screen Saver (Beta) you can: personalize with background photos and news and weather information from MSN or any RSS feeds from websites you choose, search the Web and click news headlines directly from the Screen Saver and stay connected with MSN Hotmail, MSN Messenger, and MSN Spaces. Track how many unread Hotmail messages and current Messenger conversations you have, and display blogs and photos from your friends’ MSN Spaces. Tobe mentioned that MSN Screen Saver requires installation of the MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search on the same computer (typical Microsoft ugly stuff).

More, Internet Explorer 7 will go beta this summer. Check some screenshots here.

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Longhorn, New Hotmail