Is Microsoft really the largest blog vendor?

August 20, 2006 By

Microsofties take it on face value that they host the most blogs. They even love shoving it in your face. Yesterday someone who works on the Windows Live team was taunting me with “influentials don’t matter, we got to be #1 and we don’t care that there aren’t any influential bloggers using our stuff.”

I was asking them why so few bloggers at BlogHer or Gnomedex use Windows Live Spaces, which is Microsoft’s blog and photo sharing service.

Today I see that George Moore, General Manager of Windows Live, just told a crowd in New Zealand that Windows Live is “now the largest blogging service on the planet.” At least according to Richard MacManus, who I’ve found to accurately report past events, and who is at TechED in New Zealand.

So, that made me itch and when I have an itch I want to scratch it.

Here’s my what’s itching me:

1) Is Windows Live Spaces really used as a blog service very often?
2) Is Microsoft only counting when it’s used as a blog service, or is it counting all uses of Windows Live Spaces?
3) Do other services actually have more “real” blogs? At least percentagewise?

Now, I know that WordPress.com (currently the service that most of the “in crowd” is recommending) only has about 300,000 blogs. Microsoft is claiming 72 million blogs.

So, over the next few hours I’m gonna do some analysis and see if I can find out how much overcounting there’s going on (there is SOME overcounting, based on my initial looks at http://spaces.live.com and http://www.weblogs.com — I see a whole bunch of things there that don’t look like blogs at all).

First, let’s define what a blog is, at least enough to count for this purpose.

1) Have original content. Spam blogs that are copied off of somewhere else don’t count.
2) Have at least 500 words of new text-based content every month. Things that look like Flickr streams aren’t blogs, sorry.
3) Have at least two posts in at least the past 30 days. If you aren’t posting, you’re not blogging.
4) I don’t care if you have comments, have trackbacks, have blogrolls, or any of that.

Here’s my methodology.
1) I’m going to pull the last hour’s worth of content that was published to each of the services, as reported to weblogs.com as of 3:52 p.m. today (before I post this so no one has time to monkey with the results).
2) I’m going to also visit the home pages of http://spaces.live.com and www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com and www.typepad.com and report on the percentage of blogs that I find that have been published to their “most recently published” pages are actually blogs.

Add all those percentages together and find an average. Then take that average to the reported number of blogs on each service and see if Microsoft is still #1.

Does that sound like a good methodology? Any changes you’d make?

One thing that’ll be interesting is to compare the percentages today with percentages on, say, Wednesday since I’d expect more “everyday people” to be blogging today, while on Wednesday I’d expect to see more corporate bloggers, which, my thesis is, will skew more away from Windows Live Spaces.

What do you think?

What results do you expect to see from such an exercise?

Disclaimers, Maryam, my wife, uses Windows Live Spaces. I use WordPress.com. Our book blog, Naked Conversations, is on Typepad. My son used to be on Google Blogger, but he is now on WordPress.com too.

Filed Under: 1

http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

Mike: make up a new name for what private spaces are, then. They aren’t blogs. Maybe they are “plogs.” For “private blogs.”
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

Mike: make up a new name for what private spaces are, then. They aren’t blogs. Maybe they are “plogs.” For “private blogs.”
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http://mike.spaces.live.com/ Mike Torres

Amazon has plogs – I thought of that too I will surely let Marketing and PR know that you take issue with this. I could call it whatever I want and that wouldn’t change anything. I’m just 1/70,000.

We’ve always said Spaces is more than blogging alone, so I’ve personally never been a fan of calling it a blogging service. But Marketing isn’t my job.
http://mike.spaces.live.com Mike Torres

Amazon has plogs – I thought of that too I will surely let Marketing and PR know that you take issue with this. I could call it whatever I want and that wouldn’t change anything. I’m just 1/70,000.

We’ve always said Spaces is more than blogging alone, so I’ve personally never been a fan of calling it a blogging service. But Marketing isn’t my job.
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Anonymous

I’ve always hated Microsoft for creating MSN Spaces. In a nutshell, they did essentially nothing to innovate when they created MSN Spaces.

The only reason people uses MSN Spaces is because it was pushed to them as part of MSN Messenger. People on my contact list barely write anything and they simply use it as an avenue for posting pictures, which I definitely don’t consider blogging.

Microsoft is lucky to have such a large userbase to push these services to. Otherwise they’d be dead in the water. They are definitely not one to brag about blogging.
Anonymous

I’ve always hated Microsoft for creating MSN Spaces. In a nutshell, they did essentially nothing to innovate when they created MSN Spaces.

The only reason people uses MSN Spaces is because it was pushed to them as part of MSN Messenger. People on my contact list barely write anything and they simply use it as an avenue for posting pictures, which I definitely don’t consider blogging.

Microsoft is lucky to have such a large userbase to push these services to. Otherwise they’d be dead in the water. They are definitely not one to brag about blogging.
John

I find your exclusion of “things that look like Flickr streams” to be artificially limiting. These are some of my favorites, and prompt as much discussion as any. The literalists who dominate software should recognize there’s a whole non-verbal universe, and I’m waiting for the day the rest of you discover near-full HTML in your blogs. Until then, LiveJournal’s fine with me. Count us. Or don’t. Write us off as non-serious journals. Doesn’t matter to me.
John

I find your exclusion of “things that look like Flickr streams” to be artificially limiting. These are some of my favorites, and prompt as much discussion as any. The literalists who dominate software should recognize there’s a whole non-verbal universe, and I’m waiting for the day the rest of you discover near-full HTML in your blogs. Until then, LiveJournal’s fine with me. Count us. Or don’t. Write us off as non-serious journals. Doesn’t matter to me.
http://www.ims.co.nz/blog Tim Haines

Looks like MS is counting all spaces as a blog. (See Windows Live Stats section at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/windows_live_contacts.php)

I agree those spaces that you linked to in your comments that said “There are no entries in this blog.” Should not be counted as blogs. I bet the majority of their 72 M “blogs” have this comment in them.
http://www.ims.co.nz/blog Tim Haines

Looks like MS is counting all spaces as a blog. (See Windows Live Stats section at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/windows_live_contacts.php)

I agree those spaces that you linked to in your comments that said “There are no entries in this blog.” Should not be counted as blogs. I bet the majority of their 72 M “blogs” have this comment in them.
Preston

All I have to say is, 72 million is a really high number and sounds awfully suspicious. Microsoft is desperate to have SOME slice of the web and, I’m sure, will do anything to convince themselves and others that they’ve succeeded.
Preston

All I have to say is, 72 million is a really high number and sounds awfully suspicious. Microsoft is desperate to have SOME slice of the web and, I’m sure, will do anything to convince themselves and others that they’ve succeeded.
http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/ tim finin

We reported on the distribution of blogs in the blogpulse dataset used for the 3rd Annual Workshop on Weblogging Ecosystem: Aggregation, Analysis and Dynamics at WWW 2006.

See http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/paper/html/id/299/Characterizing-the-Splogosphere for a paper with the data.

Our approach to differentiating echt blogs from splogs and from random feeds was to build a training set and then use it to train an SVM model. the accuracy for the blog/non-blog decision was about 98% and for the blog/splog decision was about 88%.

I think your 500 words and two posts a month constraint is quite reasonable. Generous, even.
http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/ tim finin

We reported on the distribution of blogs in the blogpulse dataset used for the 3rd Annual Workshop on Weblogging Ecosystem: Aggregation, Analysis and Dynamics at WWW 2006.

See http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/paper/html/id/299/Characterizing-the-Splogosphere for a paper with the data.

Our approach to differentiating echt blogs from splogs and from random feeds was to build a training set and then use it to train an SVM model. the accuracy for the blog/non-blog decision was about 98% and for the blog/splog decision was about 88%.

I think your 500 words and two posts a month constraint is quite reasonable. Generous, even.
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Microsoft Sux

Microsoft Sux!! Deleting files at network drive do not go to recycle bin. Stupid Bug.
Microsoft Sux

Microsoft Sux!! Deleting files at network drive do not go to recycle bin. Stupid Bug.
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http://www.duncanriley.com/ Duncan

I’ll leave my thoughts on this for a post, but I can tell you now that Spaces will still come out on top by your own criteria, Blogger is the only service that might come close (in terms of numbers), and yet the ratio of real blogs to splogs there is far, far worse than Spaces.
http://www.duncanriley.com Duncan

I’ll leave my thoughts on this for a post, but I can tell you now that Spaces will still come out on top by your own criteria, Blogger is the only service that might come close (in terms of numbers), and yet the ratio of real blogs to splogs there is far, far worse than Spaces.
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http://www.wageindicator.org fonstuinstra

According to the latest figures I have for the Chinese market MSN Spaces is the no.2, holding 15 percent of the market. That is decent, but not #1.
http://www.chinaherald.net/2006/07/blogs-market-share-internet-more-than.html
http://www.chinaherald.net Fons Tuinstra

According to the latest figures I have for the Chinese market MSN Spaces is the no.2, holding 15 percent of the market. That is decent, but not #1.
http://www.chinaherald.net/2006/07/blogs-market-share-internet-more-than.html
http://www.microsoft.com/nz/events/teched/keynote.mspx Bob

The video of George’s keynote is up… http://www.microsoft.com/nz/events/teched/keynote.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/nz/events/teched/keynote.mspx Bob

The video of George’s keynote is up… http://www.microsoft.com/nz/events/teched/keynote.mspx
http://raincoaster.wordpress.com/ raincoaster

Private blogs, whatever you want to call them, are still indexed by many search engines, just not Google. I know, because I had one at Diary-X for years, and when the server went bye-bye I got my archives from Yahoo caches. Believe me, I didn’t choose Diary-X for the privacy; I’ve always wondered about the brainpower of people who take the most powerful communication tool in the world and mark it “Don’t look over here!”

Perhaps I’m too cynical, but is it not possible that Microsoft has simply created a Space for every registered MSN Messenger user? This would account for the inflated numbers, and a quick email to someone at Microsoft should give you your answer.

I agree with most of your criteria, except I do believe that original images, whether photographs or artwork, should count as a blog post. There’s a reason it’s called multimedia.
http://raincoaster.wordpress.com/ raincoaster

Private blogs, whatever you want to call them, are still indexed by many search engines, just not Google. I know, because I had one at Diary-X for years, and when the server went bye-bye I got my archives from Yahoo caches. Believe me, I didn’t choose Diary-X for the privacy; I’ve always wondered about the brainpower of people who take the most powerful communication tool in the world and mark it “Don’t look over here!”

Perhaps I’m too cynical, but is it not possible that Microsoft has simply created a Space for every registered MSN Messenger user? This would account for the inflated numbers, and a quick email to someone at Microsoft should give you your answer.

I agree with most of your criteria, except I do believe that original images, whether photographs or artwork, should count as a blog post. There’s a reason it’s called multimedia.
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http://www.blogtronix.com/ Dimitar Vesselinov

The European blogosphere
http://www.eu.socialtext.net/loicwiki/index.cgi?summary_page

China’s New Obsession with Blogs and How Companies Can Benefit
“The total number of blogs in China will grow over 200% from 37 million in 2005 to nearly 120 million by the end of 2006.”
http://china.seekingalpha.com/article/13336
http://www.blogtronix.com/ Dimitar Vesselinov

The European blogosphere
http://www.eu.socialtext.net/loicwiki/index.cgi?summary_page

China’s New Obsession with Blogs and How Companies Can Benefit
“The total number of blogs in China will grow over 200% from 37 million in 2005 to nearly 120 million by the end of 2006.”
http://china.seekingalpha.com/article/13336
http://spaces.live.com/geekspeaker Jason B.

Perhaps the difference between this dialog and the one you would have had a few months ago has to do with the facts you are searching for. Biggest doesn’t mean anything if you’re not the best for the most people.
http://spaces.live.com/geekspeaker Jason B.

Perhaps the difference between this dialog and the one you would have had a few months ago has to do with the facts you are searching for. Biggest doesn’t mean anything if you’re not the best for the most people.
http://bananasfk.wordpress.com/ bananasfk

I hope microsoft get ‘class actioned’ fined by the eu etc for this monopoly they just admitted – i have privacy concerns about yahoo and microsoft especially if i was in china.
http://bananasfk.wordpress.com/ bananasfk

I hope microsoft get ‘class actioned’ fined by the eu etc for this monopoly they just admitted – i have privacy concerns about yahoo and microsoft especially if i was in china.
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David Taylor

Robert,

500 words per month!!!

Even if you just blog 50 words per month…You are still bloging. I think the methadology should be that you blog once per month and 50 words.

Not everyone has the time you do to blog robert.

If the average population wrote 500 words per month there would be low productivity
David Taylor

Robert,

500 words per month!!!

Even if you just blog 50 words per month…You are still bloging. I think the methadology should be that you blog once per month and 50 words.

Not everyone has the time you do to blog robert.

If the average population wrote 500 words per month there would be low productivity
http://ferodynamics.com/ PJ

Nothing comes close to WordPress.

You’ve got the source, the themes, the plugins, the support, etc. And it’s free. I heart WordPress.
http://ferodynamics.com/ PJ

Nothing comes close to WordPress.

You’ve got the source, the themes, the plugins, the support, etc. And it’s free. I heart WordPress.
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http://ourfounder.typepad.com/ Jim Benson

Robert,

I agree completely with your definition of a blog.

I also completely disagree that it is THE definition of a blog. Any more than there is A definition of religion.

Part of your book’s major message is that its the conversation. If you and I were in a debate, one might mistake our verbal communication as the only vehicle of the debate.

But anyone who watched Al Gore and George Bush would know that presentation is a big part of it.

Deaf people can also debate and not say a single word.

So if blogging is a naked conversation, I’d say it surely can be a stream of pictures. Neither you nor I choose to communicate that way. But others might and it weakens the blogging community to undermine those other forms of communications.
http://ourfounder.typepad.com Jim Benson

Robert,

I agree completely with your definition of a blog.

I also completely disagree that it is THE definition of a blog. Any more than there is A definition of religion.

Part of your book’s major message is that its the conversation. If you and I were in a debate, one might mistake our verbal communication as the only vehicle of the debate.

But anyone who watched Al Gore and George Bush would know that presentation is a big part of it.

Deaf people can also debate and not say a single word.

So if blogging is a naked conversation, I’d say it surely can be a stream of pictures. Neither you nor I choose to communicate that way. But others might and it weakens the blogging community to undermine those other forms of communications.
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http://bakkouz.net/ bakkouz

hah people defending msn spaces like they own it or something. its quite funny actualy.
seriously dudes, msn spaces as a blogging platform sucks ass, its cluttered, ugly, and slow.
and to claim the spaces is the largest blogging platform that is, is just rediculous.
http://bakkouz.net bakkouz

hah people defending msn spaces like they own it or something. its quite funny actualy.
seriously dudes, msn spaces as a blogging platform sucks ass, its cluttered, ugly, and slow.
and to claim the spaces is the largest blogging platform that is, is just rediculous.

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