Online Web blogs mushroomed to more than 72 million this year, with Japanese now the most prolific posters to the popular personal journal Web pages, an Internet research company said yesterday.
The popular online personal journal technology, which exploded on the Web only about five years ago, has now spread around the world, with Japanese the biggest bloggers, ahead of English-language bloggers and the rapidly growing Chinese blogging community according to Technorati, which tracks blog content.
Blogging has also exploded in politically repressed countries, with Iran's Farsi language also scoring high and rising in blogging rankings, the San Francisco company said.
In its State of the Live Web report, Technorati said the number of blogs around the world surged from 8 million in March 2005 to more than 72 million last month.
New Weblogs are being created at a rate of 120,000 daily, or three every two seconds, as compared to 25,000 new Weblogs launching on the Internet daily in March 2005, Technorati said.
But the rate at which the "blogosphere" doubles in size has slowed from once every six months to once a year, said David Sifry, Technorati's founder.
Sifry acknowledged there were probable undercounts in some countries, such as France, where users of the popular Skyblog platform do not make it into his company's database.
Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founders of international blog aggregator Global Voices Online, said differences in Weblog tools and techniques around the world make it tough to accurately track growth of the blogosphere as it factionalizes based on cultures. MacKinnon said there are an estimated 40 million Weblogs in China alone.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday said that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival-threatening situation," Takaichi was quoted as saying in the report. Under Japan’s security legislation,
RSS