The last report in 2007, David Sifry noted that roughly 120,000 new blogs being created worldwide each day. That's about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day so in the time it takes you to inhale 1 breathe of fresh cool air over 4 blogs are created.

While these figures are downright disturbing, I can guarantee a large chunk of such blogs fail miserably and take a nose-dive on or after the first post. Some bloggers don't even finish the first post... The hype of creating their one blog is soon outlived by the reality that blogging is writing, thinking and reflecting... hard work. Then there's the demographic who actually finish the first post and expect, like magic, world fame for their efforts. And when the glory of blogging doesn't come, it's over.

Google's leash

What it's sadly all boiled down to (in most cases), is Google rankings. Advertising and SEO agencies are driving their clients down the path to pure stat blogs in an effort to get good rankings, every post includes references and links to every pre defined keyword that will boost their business. The result is a cold un-human user experience. I think more often than not, they're missing the point. But it's really about integrity – do you care?

I love Dan's recent post that notes:

Remember when blogs were more casual and conversational? Before a post's purpose was to grab search engine clicks or to promise "99 Answers to Your Problem That We're Telling You You’re Having". Yeah – I'd like to get back to that here.

Touché!