Technorati have recently released their annual State of the Blogosphere report. Since 2004, thier annual study has unearthed and analyzed the trends and themes of blogging, but for the 2008 study, they resolved to go beyond the numbers of the Technorati Index to deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind. The 2008 report has some interesting depth presented in five special sub-reports:

• Who Are the Bloggers?
• The What And Why of Blogging
• The How of Blogging
• Blogging For Profit
• Brands Enter The Blogosphere

The 2008 report reveals just how pervasive blogs have become , and the extent to which they are a part of our daily lives. The figures supporting this vary from survey to survey, but all are now consistently high!

The understanding of what a blog is is changing – once known as an abbreviated form of Web-log, this report reveals a relatively equal distribution of use of blogs across all age, gender and occupation categories.  In addition, the figures reveal that blogging is now a truly global phenomenon.

Technorati defines the Active Blogosphere as: The ecosystem of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers at the convergence of journalism and conversation. As the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear. I found it interesting to note, for instance, that in the US, 95% of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs now.

Perhaps the other thing that stands out in this report is the emergence of brands and branding of blogs, and the fact that there is now good money to be made from certain genres of blog.

For anyone interested in the emerging trends associate with blogs and blog use this is a fascinating report. Probably the most interesting section for me is the “what and why of blogging” which reveals all sorts of interesting data about why people blog, what they blog about and how they measure the success of their blog. Although Education doesn’t specifically get a mention (doesn’t even appear in the top 18 topics blogged about!), there’s plenty in this report to inform thinking about the use of blogs and blogging in educational contexts.