Volume 3, No 4, 2006

Geographical Distribution of Blogs in the United States


Jia Lin and Alex Halavais

Abstract

Blogging has diffused rapidly over the last several years in the United States, but that diffusion has not occurred evenly. In examining the distribution of 191,294 weblogs sampled in November 2003, we find that while blogging enjoys popularity throughout the U.S., bloggers appear more frequently within particular cities. This project indexes American bloggers by three-digit zip codes corresponding to their location, and identifies the demographic factors that appear to encourage blogging. We find that cities with populations that are young, urban, and more tolerant of difference are likely to host more bloggers.


Pages: 1-12

Keywords: Weblog, Blog; Geography; Geocoding; United States; Zip code; City; Information retrieval

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