The Site that ate the Blogosphere
by mobilejones

Reprinted from mobilejones.com

Technorati reported on the "State of the Blogosphere" starting last week and continuing this week. The company points to the size of the blogosphere and it's growth rate. Claiming 27.7 million blogs tracked and the doubling of the blogosphere measured in months with 75,000 new blogs added daily are impressive signs of growth as stated by Technorati. But what if I told you there's a part of the blogosphere that claims 56 million members, 2 1/2 times the traffic of Google and adds 1 million new bloggers per week? Technorati does not track this part of the blogosphere. If Technorati added feeds from this group of bloggers, their current "blogosphere" would be a mere 1/3rd of the total.

The separate blogosphere that MySpace represents, 56 million members, receives very little coverage or even acknowledgement from the blogging intelligentsia. As Derrick points out, the addition of RSS feeds and Podcasting support to MySpace blogs went completely unnoticed by Technorati's A-list and RSS evangelist, Dave Winer. One might argue that Technorati's claiming that only those blogs which ping Technorati make up the blogosphere is an questionable claim. Who has more "authority" on current trends in music or even the US youth market? Technorati's blogosphere or MySpace?

Today another important announcement on the MySpace blogosphere came from the new mobile network operator, Helio, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Earthlink, which will offer MySpace Mobile.

The mobile service will offer a look, feel and overall customer experience that are true to the online MySpace environment while optimizing it for mobile including:

  • Mailbox: Ability to read and write MySpace email on Helio devices.
  • Bulletin: Send messages to all your friends anytime, anywhere from your Helio device.
  • Blogs: Read and write blogs on-the-go without a PC.
  • Photos: View photos from your friend's profiles optimized for the Helio screen.
  • Profiles: View profiles and add new friends as you meet them directly from your Helio device.

"MySpace Mobile on Helio will allow our members to share their lives as they happen and evolve the MySpace experience from being about what you did last night to about what you are doing right now...."

Recall that News Corp. purchased MySpace last year for $580 mil in cash. Recently, MySpace is beginning to show signs of acting more like a corporate powerhouse than a web 2.0 community. Between issuing C&Ds to the members of the ecosystem of sites that helped MySpace members personalized their pages, and blocking other media sharing sites like YouTube. While MySpace restored the links added from YouTube to it's member profiles, many cried censorship and pointed to MySpace readying it's own video service as the motive.

Some members remain concerned about corporate imperatives overriding the desires and needs of the community.

While many consider MySpace to be a teen site, Business Week's recent article on the rise of MySpace, "MySpace rises as new online star," states that the site has a quarter of it's members (14 million) registered as minors. Of course, the distinction of "registered as minors" is due to the lack of age verification and it is likely that some teen members add years to engage with older members of the opposite sex. If one were to grant doubling the number of minors on MySpace, that would result in a number nearly equal to size of Technorati's blogosphere (28 million). Of course, it would also mean that 28 million are not teens.

The age demographic of MySpace will be an important factor in the success of their mobile initiative. Mobile research firm M:metrics has reported that most minors with cell phone service are on family plans with their bills paid by parents.

M:Metrics data shows that overall, about 41.4 percent of subscribers who used network services to download content or send messages participate in family plans. In terms of age, 51.9 percent of survey respondents aged 13-24 - the most attractive segment being targeted by games publishers, ringtone companies and other content providers - belong to family plans.

This makes the switch to a new service provider like Helio to gain access to MySpace Mobile less likely.

MySpace continues to expand adding media sharing capabilities building upon their success bringing together the youth audience and the music industry by adding video, independent filmmakers and now making blogging and social media a mobile activity for their members. These are all accomplishments thusfar outside the reach of technology focused web 2.0 companies. While Technorati's blogosphere focuses on politics, corporate news bloggers, and web 2.0 as the ultimate media destination, the promises of community, mobility and the long tail are being realized at a site twice the size of the so called source of authority. If you're watching the blogosphere for what's next in social media, you're probably going to miss it or be late to the party.

x-posted on mobilejones

Submitted by mobilejones (view blog) on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 06:00
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Comments

 

My Space Thougts

I'm very late to the My Space phenomenon. In fact, I just learned about it from a Jeopardy question late last year.

No doubt they have a huge base, but as a 31-year-old mom who happened to take a look at the site last year, tooled around a bit to see why My Space was featured on Jeopardy and checked out a few blogs, I haven't been back and at this point I don't plan to.

I can certainly understand why My Space has been left out of the picture by the blogging intelligentsia. My Space just doesn't look "polished" enough no matter how many members they have. And the content of many of the My Space blogs -- simply from what I gleaned the one time I was there -- isn't very substantive. Therefore, I can totally see why Technorati and Winer overlooked them.

I'm sure if I visited more often I might find something of interest, but first impressions are lasting ones.

Submitted by mama-noire on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 08:46
 

It's a petri dish

Mama, you've provided an excellent illustration of the very point of the article. How many blogs or even blogging networks could have launched a record label? Could the Top Blog according to Technorati, BoingBoing, have done that? Nope. MySpace did. MySpace could because they are taking the pulse of the group of consumers who spend the most money on music.

The members of MySpace are experimenting with identity and how identity can be expressed through various forms media as a result of their adolesence. Not many new cool trends in pop culture are set by folks like you and me. Our time for doing so has passed. This is precisely the point.

The argument you make against MySpace content is interesting in that it's the same one used by A-list bloggers in not recognizing or linking to less prominent bloggers. Ignoring this vibrant petri dish of user generated content would be a mistake by those who are interested in creating such products, services or even an understanding of the future.

Again, the point is that the current blogging community will likely miss the major shifts in social media, because those who will define them are current experimenting on MySpace.


Debi Jones
Contributing Editor, Blogging and Social Media
Feed your mobile jones

Submitted by mobilejones on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 10:08
 

More MySpace Thoughts

Technorati and Winer really have a great point and reason for not including MySpace. Huge numbers don't necessarily mean true substance, although you point out that MySpace is the number one site for social media for the younger demographic.

I just don't think MySpace is where we're going to find the newest trends and greatest break-throughs from the younger generation. And even if something great originates from MySpace, it will likely filter out somewhere else where it will gain greater acceptance and respect from those who "matter" in the blogosphere.

While MySpace and its members are doing great things, I'm sure Technorati and Winer are betting nothing of real substance is going to come by way of MySpace. When something does, I'm sure they'll be all over it. Until then, let MySpace focus on music.

Submitted by mama-noire on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 10:49
 

agree to disagree

Jennifer, new trends have already come from MySpace, but that's difficult to see for some apparently.

You aren't aware, I take it, of MySpace's new initiative with indy filmmakers, or of the importance of mobility in the whole equation.

I think you'll find that social media isn't limited to whatever one company or one blogger might say that it is. I doubt they would make that claim either.

Perhaps you have some insight into what sites matter. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.


Debi Jones
Contributing Editor, Blogging and Social Media
Feed your mobile jones

Submitted by mobilejones on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 11:35
 

My Space Fan...

I am a My Space fan, not for my own daily use (though I do have an account and was just there, oddly enough), but because of the community of young people who are there.

There IS interesting stuff in there. There IS cutting edge stuff in there. There IS life in there and most of all, there IS community.

Yes, it is full of young people doing what young people tend to do - which for many adults is boring or frightening - but that's what makes it so interesting and what should make it important to everyone.

~Denise

Submitted by Denise on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 12:19
 

My Space is teen, they say?

Maybe "they" know best, but it always strikes me as strange when My Space is referred to as a "teen" thing... I'm 34, and none of my My Space friends are teenagers!!! LOL

Personally, I think Technorati leaving out My Space blogs is blantant bias at best. Protectionism at worst? Again, I'm 34, and I'd be surprised if I read five of the Technorati Top 100 blogs. As for quality... who's to judge? Is Technorati judging quality now, or are they tracking the blogosphere?

If anything, what needs to happen is a way for users to code their blogs by type. That way, there could be a Technorati Top 100 business blogs or something, and there could be a Technorati Top 100 Personal Blogs, which I would MADLY interested in, and which currently doesn't even exist. And if all of those were My Space blogs, so be it. I would say that's the blogosphere talking.

Submitted by Liz Rizzo on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 13:05
 

interesting

Great post. I am totally ignorant of what My Space is all about- I've heard of it of course, but my perception of it is based on little bits I hear here and there, not due to any real interaction with it. I rarely come across My Space blogs and had no idea that they weren't part of technorati's ranking.

I will admit I always assumed My Space had much younger users and I don't even know where I got that idea.

I used to be part of a internet community, Tribe.net, but left when it started trying to be a carbon copy of My Space and when they instituted what I considered to be thinly veiled censorship policies. Many of my friends on Tribe had a very negative take on My Space and I think I just picked up on that.

I'd be interested in checking out some My Space political blogs.

It doesn't surprise me that there is a lot of blogging snobbery involved in this. It's too bad but probably the nature of the beast.

Submitted by stacyb on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 15:57
 

back to the future

MySpace so much reminds me of the internet 10 years ago (Lord, was i in college that long ago already?!) when everyone had an Angelfire or Geocities page. Those companies weren't able to translate their member base into cold hard cash, so it will be interesting to see what News Corp. does with their investment. I see lots of SMS/Podcast/MTV/Movie tie-ins in the future. =)

Submitted by ktsasis on Sun, 02/19/2006 - 04:42