Thursday, July 20, 2006

Numbers cut through blogging hype

I think it's pretty obvious that the number of different reasons for blogging is pretty close to the number of bloggers, but one thing in this article I did find strange.

A study by social networking site MSN Spaces...
emphasis mine

Isn't trying to find out about blogger by studying MSN Spaces kind of like trying to find out something about drivers by studying people who ride mopeds? Does anyone use MSN Spaces? I honestly didn't realize that anyone did.

Ok, so I realize maybe the study was just done by MSN Spaces, and they weren't only studying MSN Spaces users. Though, it's still pretty suspect, since to take the survey, one would have probably had to have some connection to MSN Spaces somewhere. Maybe Yahoo 360 can do a similar study, then we can find some real answers.

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6 comments:

John Howard said...

I don't think the study made any claim about Americans, so I'm not sure what your point is.

I vehemntly research the validity of all my posts, except the ones where I don't.

Anonymous said...

The article clearly states that the research was conducted in the U.K., so your perceptions about the popularity or lack thereof for MSN spaces is not particularly relevant here.

Also, they list enough numbers that you should be able to ascertain the study's degree of validity. For example, they specifically note that 233 people were interviewed and 750 people completed a survey. Neither the researchers nor the article do anything to try to obscure the facts of how the data were obtained.

Given that lately you have posted so often about research, I find it rather ironic that you have have such difficulty evaluating the quality of it.

John Howard said...

I don't care about their research methods. The point of my post was that MSN Spaces really, really sucks.

Anonymous said...

*sighs*

You've become such a sad Seinfeld rip-off, Johnnie Cakes.

John Howard said...

You don't even watch Seinfeld.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but I can smell it a mile away. Maybe you should take a vacation and let Chris take over for awhile.