30% of US population visited blogs in Q1 2005

Nearly 50 mln Americans, or about 30% of the total US Internet population, visited blogs in Q1 2005, ComScore Networks says. This represents an increase of 45% compared to Q1 2004. 5 hosting services for blogs each had more than 5 mln unique visitors in Q1 2005, and four individual blogs had more than 1 mln visitors each. Of 400 of the largest blogs observed, segmented by 8 (non-exclusive) categories, political blogs were the most popular, followed by "hipster" lifestyle blogs, tech blogs and blogs authored by women. Compared to the average Internet user, blog readers are significantly more likely to live in wealthier households, be younger and connect to the Web on high-speed connections. Blog readers also visit nearly twice as many web pages as the Internet average, and they are much more likely to shop online.