Blogosphere

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blogosphere is a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. It is the perception that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network.

1 History
2 Tracking
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

The term blogosphere was coined on September 10, 1999 by Brad L. Graham, as a joke.^[1] It was re-coined in 2002 by William Quick,^[2] and was quickly adopted and propagated by the warblog community. The term resembles the older word "logosphere" (from Greek logos meaning word, and sphere, interpreted as world), the "the world of words", the universe of discourse. It also resembles the term "noosphere" (Greek nous meaning mind).

As of 2007, a lot of people still treat the term blogosphere as a joke; however, the BBC, and National Public Radio's programs Morning Edition, Day To Day, and All Things Considered have used the term several times to discuss public opinion. A number of media outlets in recent years have started treating the blogosphere as a gauge of public opinion, and it has been cited in both academic and non-academic work as evidence of rising or falling resistance to globalization, voter fatigue, and many other phenomena.^[3]

[edit] Tracking

Sites such as Technorati, Blogdex (as of April 2007, site is currently being "rethought"), Bloglines, Tailrank, PubSub, Blogrunner, Blog Street, BlogsNow and Truth Laid Bear track the interconnections between bloggers. Taking advantage of hypertext links which act as markers for the subjects the bloggers are discussing, these sites can follow a piece of conversation as it moves from blog to blog. These also can help information researchers study how fast a meme spreads through the blogosphere, in order to determine which sites are the most important for gaining early recognition.