Creator of The Daily Kos (rhymes with "rose")

Call it a web log, a blog or an online publication of unique content, readers who entered the Blogosphere by logging into news, stories and commentary offered by cottage content providers surged 58% in 2004 according to a new report out by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The Pew study states that 27% of Internet users say they read blogs in November 2004. This compared to 17% in a survey conducted in February.

Blogs, blogging and blog readership was driven in part by news events, politics, high-profile court cases, and publishers reaching out to help tsunami victims in South Asia and those affected by the hurricanes in Florida, last year.

The survey was based on random phone interviews with 1,861 Internet users conducted from November 4th to 30th, 2004.

While the community of those reading blogs increased from February to the end of November, the percentage of people online who create blogs grew only 7 percent in November, up just two points from 5 percent in February.

Currently, there are approximately 5 million blogs in the Internet universe.

Many television networks, newspapers, and opinion journals now host "blogs" (short for web logs) on their Web sites.

The Perseus Development Corporation, a consulting firm that studies Internet trends, estimates that by the end of 2005 more than 10 million blogs will have been created.

The Pew study notes that bloggers are predominately young, male, and affluent.

70% "in the blogosphere" have broadband connections at home, and 82 percent have been online for at least six years.

According to Intelliseek's BlogPulse, an automated trend discovery system for blogs and a portal into the blogosphere, among the top five blogs cited in 2004 were:

BoingBoing.net: A Directory of Wonderful Things by Happy Mutants LLC

DailyKos.com: Political Analysis & Other Daily Rants on the State of the Nation by writer, political / war commentator and musician, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga

Instapundit.com: Opeds, Law Reviews and Other Commentary by University of Tennessee law professor, Glenn Reynolds

DrudgeReport.com: Political, Social and Entertainment News Hightlights spearheaded by Matt Drudge since 1994

Slashdot.org: News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters by an open source community

Inspire & Be Inspired (R).

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "blogosphere" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King