Blogs

I started this blog almost a year ago and I never thought how releasing writing a blog would be. Blogs are not for everyone I know because not everyone is able to sit down everyday and write or even every second day or even once a week. But for some it is a huge outlet. There are some amazing blogs out there in Web land and there are some really dreadful ones and there are some very sad and forgotten blogs out there but it is lots of fun to go surfing and find a real gem.... this week I found one of those real gems. It is call Ramblings Of The Bearded One

The Red Hot Chili Peppers said in their song Can't Stop that music was the great communicator.... but I'm afraid that they got it wrong. You see the great communicator of our times is the blog.

I've been doing a little research in an effort to get some Blog Statistics and it is interesting to note that there are no statistical information on the WWWeb that gives a true estimate of blogs worldwide. Some statistical reports give stats for their site but that only takes into consideration one site and there are hundreds of sites where a person can go to set up a blog. I found one what seemed a decent site for blog stats and this is what they had to say...

In September 2002 the New York Times reported that LiveJournal had signed up 690,000 users since 1998 and was currently gaining another 1,100 bloggers per day. It is unclear whether all 690,000 were (and still are) maintaining their personal pages and, if so, how frequently.

In the same month the Times claimed that Brazil was the "second-largest Blogger-using country" after the US, with up to 13% of the 750,000 Blogger users.

There are so many blogs that there is no possible ability to for one person to view all the good blogs on the web let alone identify the good from the bad which would mean following hundred of thousands of blogs. The likelihood of someone picking up your blog is huge. It would be like walking down a street and rubbing elbow with royalty.... highly unlikely. Yet people do find blogs of interest and they do follow them. It is amazing how one blog can capture the attention of millions of people. All it takes is someone saying, "hey I read a great blog at such and such a site. I'll send you the url.... that's it and off and running is the blog.

It's funny because it is likely that most people start writing a blog to vent a few things on their mind and maybe journal and improve their writing skills. the possibility of the unknown is so impossible that a blogger might not even take that into consideration. Yet it is that very reason that I like blogs. It's cool to be able to write and you can fool yourself into thinking that blogging is for you and you alone but yet its out there for all to see.

I know how hard it is to find information on my ancestors because over the years I have helped my Dad with his interest in genealogy. Our ancestors didn't have the internet to put their thoughts out there open to the world. We have so much more opportunity to connect with others than did our ancestors. I hate to be an historian of the future. It would be impossible to sift through the reams of information that are so close and personal.

I never met my paternal grandfather. He died of cancer long before I was born and I have always had a unexplainable curiosity about him. There are very few pictures of him and there are so many conflicting descriptions among my family members that it is hard to decide what is true.... I can only imagine how easy it would be to get to know my grandfather if blogs had been around during his life and he were a blogger.

I can get to know someone on the other side of the world just by following regularly, the writings of a blog that I just happen to hit by serendipity. It somehow makes it a much smaller world.... don't you think?