Le Web 3: Blogs, both Worldwide and European

Dave Sifry of Technorati is up and giving the live version of his State of the Blogosphere speech.

One interesting thing he has pointed out is that there are spikes of blog activity whenever a major world event happens.

And now, he’s begging the French to start pinging Technorati so his service better represents the French market.

Oh, now here’s something for my colleagues to start thinking about. How is trade media doing in the link rankings? Not well. They’re disappearing down the listing ranks as niche bloggers start to gain more popularity.

And now, a word from the French. Alexis Helcmanocki of IPSOS has been researching the use of blogs and UGC across Europe. The countries surveyed were UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Britain is the lowest internet penetration.

90% of internet users in France know about blogs, compared to 50% in the UK. In fact, the UK is lagging the rest of Europe in this. BUT readership levels are only in the teens, and posters only in the single figures. France leads the pack, but this time Germany lags it.

Another shock: only 20% of people in the UK trust the media, compared to 40 to 60% in the rest of Europe. It’s the “tabloid effect”, as Alexis described it. And when it comes to blogs, the same pattern applies. The most trusted media is recognised websites at 31%, followed by newspapers at 30% and blogs at 24%.

Strangely, the UK leads the way in using the internet in purchasing decisions. And there’s over-whelming evidence that blogs effect buying decisions, especially amongst high spenders.