50 Million Blogging Fans Can't be Wrong

OK. It seems like most people who've taken the time to post about David Sifry's latest "optimistic" look at the size of the Blogosphere have roundly rejected his "50 million" number.

Let's see whether the MSM has lapped it up? (What do you think?) ---

Actually, I'm impressed that so far not to many have picked up the item at all.

Of those that did, some just accepted it, without challenge. One said "according to a new study" (A "study"? More like a number Technorati's marketing department agreed it would release.)

Those that got it wrong:
-- Agence France Presse said the 50 million "were tracked on the Internet last month"
-- The Oakland Tribune: 50 million bloggers "now grace the world with their musings"
-- Editor and Publisher for some reason downgraded the number to 40 million. Typo, perhaps.

Others don't even say where the number comes from:
-- Ottawa Citizen: "...for those who consistently read any of the 50 million-odd blogs..."
-- Technology Daily PM: "... that with 50 million blogs and video production getting cheaper..."

Confusingly a press release from Informative in July 2006 mentions: "According to Technorati, an estimated 30 percent of all 50 million internet users are blog readers. There are currently 14 million blogs, and since bloggers update their blogs regularly, there are about 1.2 million new posts daily."

Product News Network says Windows Live Spaces alone has more than 50 million spaces.

CMP TechWeb (and a few others like National Post and Silicon.com) is the most accurate, in my mind, saying Technorati is "tracking its 50 millionth blog," which is correctly akin to "99 billion served" at McDonalds. Not very useful, but accurate.