By Ken Y-N (
August 31, 2005 at 22:36)
· Filed under Blogging, Polls
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This page at HotLink (or whatever the official English title is) has the results of a survey that seems very dubious to me.
Q1: Do you understand “blog”?
Oops, alarm bells are ringing! According to The Register, around the start of the year 62% of USA-based internet users did not know what the term meant.
I therefore suggest that this survey is not based on a random selection of users, but somehow heavily biased towards bloggers. Let’s look at the sample used then.
Sex:
Occupation:
| Employee |
47.5% |
| Self-Employed |
4.9% |
| Full-time housewife |
23.3% |
| Part-timer |
11.7% |
| Student |
2.9% |
| Others |
9.7% |
Age:
| 20-29 |
28.2% |
| 30-39 |
37.0% |
| 40-49 |
21.3% |
| 50-59 |
11.6% |
| 60+ |
1.9% |
Oops, a definitely young person oriented survey, with perhaps a larger than average number of employees. With that pinch of salt taken, let us proceed with the other questions.
Q2: Have you ever used a blog-only search engine?
Q3: Do you think you’ll try using a blog-only search engine in the future?
| I want to try to use one |
54.4% |
| I don’t think I want to use one |
45.6% |
Q4: Have you made use of blogs or net-based word-of-mouth to gather information?
Q5: For what purpose have you used blogs or net-based word-of-mouth to gather information?
| Companies |
14.3% |
| Products |
68.3% |
| Politics |
4.8% |
| Arts (includes actors?) |
39.7% |
| Current affairs |
23.8% |
| Business information |
11.1% |
| Music, etc entertainment information |
31.7% |
| Others |
23.8% |
| No answer |
0.0% |
Q6: Regarding your answers for Q5, which blogs or net-based word-of-mouth gathered information was usable (highly trustworthy)?
| Companies |
7.9% |
| Products |
52.4% |
| Politics |
3.2% |
| Arts (includes actors?) |
14.3% |
| Current affairs |
12.7% |
| Business information |
7.9% |
| Music, etc entertainment information |
15.9% |
| Others |
22.2% |
| No answer |
0.0% |
Looks like people have major trust issues with the web, which is good, I suppose, since there’s a lot of nonsense out there! It’s interesting that the others category information was taken to be the most reliable – I wonder what that was?
Q7: In the coming general election do you think blogs will have influence?
| They will |
52.4% |
| They won’t |
47.6% |
Q8: In relation to the coming general election, do you think you want to consult blogs or net-based word-of-mouth?
| I want to consult it |
2.9% |
| If it’s valid information I want to consult it |
62.1% |
| I won’t consult it much |
14.6% |
| I won’t consult it at all |
20.4% |
Q9: In the future, do you think blogs or net-based word-of-mouth will influence elections or public opinion-forming?
Q10: In the future, do you think blogs will become an effective means of information gathering?
Sigh, once again blogs are being overestimated by the general public. I share The Register’s disdain for them as an effective medium for anything other than massaging the ego of the writer, especially when opinions are being expressed. The first thing I always do when reading a new blog is wonder what is the writer’s angle. Most blogs end up in an incentious ring of mutual back-slapping and cross-linking, where truth is represented by the number of hangers-on you can attract, all hoping to bask in some reflected glory. This ring of cross-linking also has the effect of gumming up Google, promoting ideas not based on the quality of the content but the quantity of the fan-boys.
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