Bitacoras.com publishes the results of a study based on the platform’s internal data, with the intention of offering a broader perspective about the reality of the blogosphere in Spanish. This report extends and supports previous studies and tries to promote and spread the phenomenon of blogs beyond their own borders.
1. State of the Hispanic
Blogosphere report 2009
http://bitacoras.com/informe/09/en
2. Index
1. Abstract ................................................................................................................. 3
2. Introduction and methodology ......................................................................... 4
3. Results .................................................................................................................... 5
3.1. Users (bloggers)......................................................................................................................................................................... 5
3.1.1. Gender .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 5
3.1.2. Age...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
3.1.3. Location............................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
3.1.4. Social Networks ........................................................................................................................................................................13
3.2. Content (blogs)........................................................................................................................................................................14
3.2.1. Location.........................................................................................................................................................................................14
3.2.2. Topics..............................................................................................................................................................................................15
3.2.3. Search.............................................................................................................................................................................................18
3.2.4. Trends.............................................................................................................................................................................................20
3.2.5. Updates.........................................................................................................................................................................................23
3.2.6. Blog networks.............................................................................................................................................................................24
3.2.7. Platforms.......................................................................................................................................................................................25
3.2.8. Relevance .....................................................................................................................................................................................25
4. Discussion and conclusions............................................................................. 26
5. Notes .................................................................................................................. 28
6. Acknowledgments ............................................................................................. 29
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 2
3. 1. Abstract
Since its huge emergence in the late XX Now for the first time in history,
century and the beginning of the XXI Bitacoras.com publishes the results of a
century, many have been the studies that study based on the platform’s internal
have attempted to approach to the blog data, with the intention of offering a
phenomenon in Spanish. broader perspective about the reality of
the blogosphere in Spanish.
Most of these researches have been
based on surveys of bloggers or experts A first report that extends and supports
in the field, using indirect data and small previous studies and tries to promote
sized samples. and spread the phenomenon of blogs
beyond their own borders. Note 1
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 3
4. 2. Introduction and methodology
Bitacoras.com is a social network where before they are indexed, all the blogs
bloggers and readers of blogs in Spanish, pass through a human filter that ensures
can communicate with each other, share that the content doesn’t violate rights of
knowledge and promote content. The third parties (xenophobic, racist, sexually
system collects real-time updates of explicit, etc.), blogs are not created solely
thousands of blogs, making it an essential for promotion or positioning (spamblogs
tool to understand what happens in the or splogs), are written in Spanish
blogosphere at any given time. language and have the generally
accepted format. Note 2
Among the entire set of services,
highlights the social aggregator, which is Therefore, all the results in this study and
able to filter the entire volume of presented below are based on an
content continuously generated by blogs analysis of the data of the platform that
and whose methodology combines an we believe are representative and
automatic detection of links and also a relevant of the Hispanic Blogosphere.
manual vote system for users.
As a starting point, here are our four
In this way, Bitacoras.com has a huge basic indicators of activity of the system
volumen of information that feeds the in April 2009:
database (users, blogs, notes, tags, etc..)
from 16 Spanish-speaking countries and
more than 15 platforms for creating, Blogs indexed: 319.026
managing and hosting blogs. Posts indexed: 3.067.058
The project does not use third-party Links processed: 16.070.273
data (Google and Technorati, for Registered Bloggers with complete
example) and unlike other systems profile: 119.161
ensures the quality of content because,
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 4
5. 3. Results
3.1 Bloggers
3.1.1. Gender
About 81% of Hispanic bloggers are men and only 19% women. The difference in
the use of Internet between the sexes is accentuated in the case of blogs, where
only 2 out of 10 bloggers are women. Note 3
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 5
6. 3.1.2. Age
Approximately 80% of Hispanic bloggers are aged between 19 and 44 years, being the
segment between 25 and 34 years the most active with 38% of the total.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 6
7. 3.1.3. Location
Globally, half of the overall bloggers are from Spain, being Argentina, Mexico and Chile
the following most active countries in number of bloggers in the Hispanic world.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 7
8. Nationally, we show below the main cities with the highest number of bloggers:
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 8
13. 3.1.4. Social Networks
Hispanic Bloggers often use different social tools where Flickr and Twitter are two of the
best known. Bitacoras.com allows bloggers to join their accounts to these services with
their profile and we have found that 53% use Twitter and 46% Flickr.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 13
14. 3.2. Blogs
3.2.1. Location
The blog distribution by country follows the line we have seen in the case of
bloggers, Spain being the nation that groups more than half of the Hispanic
eNewspapers (54.5%), followed by Argentina (10.2%) , Mexico (8.9%) and Chile
(7%).
Another highlight is the average number of blogs run by user: 1.23 which indicates
that, on average, Hispanic bloggers publish in more than one blog.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 14
15. 3.2.2. Most used topics in blogs
The graph shows a comparison between Science (1.6%), TV and Video (1.5%),
the most written and valued topics in the Travel (1.2%) Curiosities (1.2%), Sports
Hispanic blogs. (1.1%), Erotic ( 1.1%) and Marketing and
Advertising (1%).
In the most written topics, we found a
high percentage of autobiographical and If we analyze the most valued topics,
personal blogs (34%). There are three there are significant differences. First of
major groups. The first consists of blogs all because there is a wider distribution
about News (11%), Culture and Society among the topics and second, because
(9%), Journalism and Media (6%), the most valued topics by users do not
Education (5%), History, Art and match with the most published.
Literature (4%) and Politics (4% ). The Specifically highlighted in top: Blogs
second, consisting of blogs with the (11.3%), Journalism and Media (8.5%),
following topics: Technology (3%), Internet (6.9%), Marketing and
Internet (2%) and Blogs (2%). Finally, Advertising (5.4%) and Technology
with a small percentage, blogs with a (5.2%).
very varied topics: Humor (2%),
Photography (1.9%), Fashion and Design The topics of the most valued posts in
(1.9%), Jobs (1.8%), Music (1.8%), Bitacoras.com in the last months, confirm
these conclusions.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 15
16. Topics of the most valued posts in Bitacoras.com in the last months:
La elección de González Sinde una provocación de Zapatero contra Internet
http://www.internautas.org/html/5506.html
Arranca la blogocampaña contra el porno infantil
http://lahuelladigital.blogspot.com/2008/10/arranca-la-blogocampaa-contra-el-porno.html
Microsoft cierra mi blog por denunciar públicamente que tiene pederastas en su re d Windows Live
http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/mmadrigal/2009/4/17/microsoft-cierra-mi-blog-denunciar-publicamente-tiene
Entrevista con el webmaster de infopsp
http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/mmadrigal/2009/4/17/microsoft-cierra-mi-blog-denunciar-publicamente-tiene
Aclaraciones sobre la primera sentencia condenatoria a una página de enlaces
http://www.filmica.com/david_bravo/archivos/009350.html
Me acaban de prohibir usar el twitter en la Comision
http://elblogdereyesmontiel.blogspot.com/2009/03/me-acaban-de-prohibir-usar-el-twitter.html
Le roban maestrosdelweb.com y forosdelweb.com a Christian Van Der Henst
http://alt1040.com/2009/02/le-roban-maestrosdelwebcom-y-forosdelwebcom-a-christian-van-der-henst
Hernán Casciari nos lleva a la tumba
http://www.eventoblog.com/2008/11/hernan-casciari-nos-lleva-a-la-tumba
Promesa pública a la Ministra
http://blogs.elpais.com/espoiler/2009/04/promesa-pública-a-la-ministra.html
Prey: Y rastrea tu computador robado
http://bootlog.org/blog/linux/prey-stolen-laptop-tracking-script
Free Blogger: ayudemos a los bloggers italianos
http://mangasverdes.es/2009/03/11/free-blogger-ayudemos-a-los-bloggers-italianos
Los insultos de Teddy Bautista
http://www.enriquedans.com/2009/03/los-insultos-de-teddy-bautista.html
Revientan y ridiculizan la campaña "Si eres legal, eres legal"
http://www.filmica.com/david_bravo/archivos/008918.html
7 razones por las que ser Productivo
http://www.thinkwasabi.com/2009/04/14/razones-ser-productivo
Facebook permite hacer público el perfil a todo el mundo
http://www.error500.net/redes-sociales/facebook-publico-perfil
Bloguero liberiano escribe sus posts con tiza y pizarrón
http://www.fayerwayer.com/2009/03/bloguero-liberiano-escribe-sus-posts-con-tiza-y-pizarron
Videoblogs en español
http://www.marilink.net/2008/12/16/videoblogs-en-espanol
En la muerte de un periodista: Julio Alonso, compañero, amigo maestro
http://periodismoalpilpil.blogspot.com/2009/03/en-la-muerte-de-un-periodista-julio_12.html
Contrato del bloguer y el comentarista
http://wedgelog.com/2009/03/contrato-del-bloguer-y-el-comentarista
11,5 millones de euros no bastan para hacer una web decente, la vergüenza nacional de Renfe.es
http://loogic.com/115-millones-de-euros-no-bastan-para-hacer-una-web-decente-la-verguenza-nacional-de-renfees
Así funciona la SGAE, en cuatro enlaces
http://www.escolar.net/MT/archives/2009/04/asi-funciona-la-sgae-en-cuatro-enlaces.html
Cómo vivir con un cerebro y dos conciencias
http://librodenotas.com/guiaparaperplejos/15677/como-vivir-con-un-cerebro-y-dos-conciencias
Gripe porcina en España: Primer caso confirmado
http://www.toniface.es/gripe-porcina-en-espana-primer-caso-confirmado
Exclusiva: El gobierno ultima un plan para dar un ordenador a cada niño de primaria
http://www.radiocable.com/ordenador-nino-primaria7658.html
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 16
17. Jazztel confirma el bloqueo de servidores de Wordpress.com
http://www.alsd.es/2009/03/04/jazztel-confirma-el-bloqueo-de-servidores-de-wordpresscom
ADN.es cierra
http://www.escolar.net/MT/archives/2009/01/adnes-cierra.html
Tras reiniciar, dibujamos la hoja de ruta
http://www.233grados.com/blog/2008/10/post.html
Pocoyó sí se merece una cartera ministerial
http://blogs.cincodias.com/la-nueva-cultura/2009/04/pocoyó-sí-se-merece-una-cartera-ministerial.html
21 días... haciendo cualquier cosa menos perio dismo
http://www.filmica.com/sonia_blanco/archivos/009298.html
Salvemos a Internet de convertirse en una televisión
http://www.internautas.org/html/5481.html
Público cambia de director
http://www.escolar.net/MT/archives/2009/01/publico-cambia-de-director.html
El día que Zapatero perdió Internet
http://www.merodeando.com/2009/04/07-gonzalez-sinde-internet-no-se-rinde
El fracaso de la prensa
http://mangasverdes.es/2009/03/04/el-fracaso-de-la-prensa
Encuentran un árbol creciendo dentro del pulmón de un pacie nte
http://www.marlexsystems.org/5463-encuentran-un-arbol-creciendo-dentro-del-pulmon-de-un-paciente
Nueva licencia Creative Commons 0, sin ninguna restricción
http://www.theinquirer.es/2009/02/28/nueva-licencia-creative-commons-0-sin-ninguna-restriccion.html
El Partido Popular y sus ‘Mariconadas’ homófobas
http://alasombradeltomate.es/2009/04/27/partido-popular-mariconadas-homofobas
Otro Día, En Extranjería
http://lastermopilas.net/2009/04/otro-dia-en-extranjeria
El rediseño de Facebook no gusta… y no lo van a cambiar
http://www.uberbin.net/archivos/redes-sociales/el-rediseno-de-facebook-no-gusta-y-no-lo-van-a-cambiar.php
Arte anónimo por las calles de Madrid
http://www.jesusencinar.com/2009/03/arte-anonimo-por-las-calles-de-madrid.html
Google Chrome, navegador de Google
http://www.error500.net/articulo/google-chrome-navegador
Lo que los gurús del Social Media no quieren que leas
http://alt1040.com/2009/04/lo-que-los-gurus-del-social-media-no-quieren-que-leas
Mentiras y gordas
http://www.enriquedans.com/2009/04/mentiras-y-gordas.html
Main conclusions:
1. The Hispanic blogosphere is very endogamous, evaluating mainly entries related to
the medium itself.
2. Using blogs mostly as a tool of social protest (pornography, anorexia) and as a
political protest against measures affecting the Internet and free culture (Copyright, p2p,
etc.). (Note 4) (Note 5) (Note 6)
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 17
19. If we look at the searches that users have performed through Bitacoras.com, we found
primarily technological terms, news and entertainment, without any connection between
them.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 19
20. 3.2.4. Trends
With the new tool "Trends" recently released in Bitacoras.com, we can
also make comparisons between the popularity of terms, phrases and
URLs.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 20
23. 3.2.5. Update frequency
The day of the week with higer volume content occurs at 16 hours, with the
of publication in the Hispanic logic decreases of activity at night and
Blogosphere is on Wednesday with a during the hours of breakfast, lunch and
16.3%. From there, this value will dinner. Note 7
decrease to its lowest record on Sunday
when he starts the recovery. If we look Therefore, the peak of activity in the
at the different time slots, most published Hispanic Blogosphere during the week is
on Wednesday from 16 to 19 hours.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 23
24. 3.2.6. Blog Networks
We have used quantitative (number of Networks, Weblogs SL, Hipertextual,
blogs and posts) and qualitative Actualidad Blog and Bitablog with over
parameters (votes received in the social 25,000 entries. Based on the number of
aggregator) to analyze the main Hispanic votes in the social aggregator
blog networks. Bitacoras.com we found La Voz de
Galicia, Hipertextual and ABC Blogs.
Considering the number of blogs in it,
the main network would be 100 blogs Therefore, the number of blogs in a
alongside with Redactores.es with more network and its update rate, has no
than half a hundred blogs. Given the direct relation to their relevance. Note 8
volume of publication highlights Ocio
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 24
25. 3.2.7. Platforms
Some of the platforms for creating and hosting blogs in Spanish with the greatest number
of blogs indexed in our system.
3.2.8. Relevance
The cloud shows the Hispanic blogs that have the largest number of votes garnered in the
social aggregator Bitacoras.com in the last months.
26. 4. Discussion and conclusions
First of all, this is the first study of these Blogosphere is seething. It had never
features so we started with an initial before had such a volume of blogs, posts
restriction in the evolution of the and links, although we start to see some
phenomenon, it was impossible to make slowdown in the growth that we hope
comparisons with previous periods, to ratify in forthcoming studies.
something that we will be able to do in
future deliveries of this report. Furthermore, it is important to
distinguish between volume and update.
However, based on the data we have in There is a considerable volume of
Bitacoras.com and we have used in this Hispanics blogs, but only a small part is
study, we can say that the Hispanic frequently updated.
From November 2007 to the present, • 38.914 blogs posted in the last 6
the number of blogs indexed in months.
Bitacoras.com rise to 319,026, that have • 22.278 blogs posted in the last
published 3,067,058 posts, generating a months.
total of 16,070,273 links. • 12.493 blogs posted in the last 7
days.
If we look at the activity over the past • 6.465 blogs posted in the last 24
few months we find that:: hours.
• 709 blogs posted in the last hour.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 26
27. This means that only 6.98% of the Hispanic Blogger Profile
Hispanics blogs are updated with
some frequency, and only 3.91% The Hispanic Blogger is mainly a man
of them are actually active. between 25 and 34 years old located in
Spain, Argentina, Mexico and Chile, that
It is interesting to compare these figures uses Twitter as a complement to his
with the results of the latest report on main blogging activity, and publishes
the state of the global blogosphere posts related to his personal life, news,
presented annually by Technorati: culture and society, but when it comes
to consume content, prefers topics as
“Over the 133 million blogs that exist in environment, technology and the
the world, only 1.1% has been updated Internet.
in the last week, which means that only
1.5 million blogs are active.” Publish mostly on weekdays, especially
on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Therefore, the percentage of Hispanic Thursdays in the afternoon and write in
blogs which are frequently updated are more than one blog.
above the world average given by
Technorati.
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 27
28. 5. Notes
Note 1: A blog also called weblog is a log book on the Internet with Note 3: Some studies like the annual report eEspaña 2008 on the
one or more topics and a number of characteristics: updating, development of information in Spain (Fundación Orange), or the 11th
organizing, speaking, facilitation and distribution. AIMC survey of Internet users, shows a digital divide between men
and women that becomes even more apparent in the case of blogs.
• Updated because the author or authors often published
posts. Note 4: For the study of the most written topics in the Hispanic
Blogosphere (3.2.4), we have taken the tags used by users in each of
• Organization because these entries are sorted by date its entries, as well as data contributed by each blogger in the profile of
and by category. every blog.
• Conversation because allows comments from readers Note 5: For the study of the most valued topics we have used data
and visitors to the site to encourage dialogue and debate from the social aggregator Bitacoras.com whose running is as follows:
on the published issues.
The social aggregator Bitacoras.com uses both, the links
• Simpler because it is very easy to create, use and publish received by a post and the votes by users. Its methodology can
posts in a blog. You no longer need to know complex be summarized basically as follows:
programming languages to communicate on the network.
This also provides a universal tool. The total sum of points is determined by a post:
• Distribution because it organize the content in a file called Links from blogs:
"feed". Syndication offers the opportunity to read entries
from a program called news reader or aggregator Our system filters the entries (posts) that users send
without having to visit the blog. by ping, looking for links to other posts in
Bitacoras.com
The set of blogs that exist on the network is called the blogosphere.
Quantity and quality. When we find a link, we give a
Note 2: Some of the major studies on the phenomenon based on score to the post linked based in the position of the
surveys to bloggers or experts in the field, agree on many of the blog who links in the TOP Bitacoras.com. Each found
conclusions highlighted in this report. Among the studies we have link is summed to the previous points.
consulted:
Votes by users.
• State of the Blogosphere 2008. Technorati.
http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/ Any anonymous user can vote the posts from our
system, its vote is worth 1 point. For registered users
• Perfil del blogger hispano. III Encuesta a Bloggers. Tíscar we have a system that changes the weight of a vote
Lara y Fernando Garrido. Revista Diálogos de la from "1 point" to "5 points" depending on the position
Comunicación, número 76. Enero-Abril 2008. Encuesta of the user in the Top Users.
realizada en la plataforma de Netquest.
http://www.dialogosfelafacs.net/76/articulos/pdf/76Garrid System restrictions
oLara.pdf
• The user can only make one vote per entry.
• “Estudio sobre uso, interés, conocimiento y percepción
de la blogosfera española”. Zed Digital. Abril de 2007. 8
• An anonymous user can send a maximum of 10 votes
entrevistas en profundidad a bloggers.
per hour.
http://www.merodeando.com/archivos/Blogosfera_abr07.
pdf
We consider only the first 3 links found to a blog post sent by
the same user. The fourth link will appear in references, but
• “Blogs y Medios – Las claves de una relación de interés
will not give points in the system..
mutuo”. José Manuel Noguera Vivo. 2008.
http://www.librosenred.com/libros/blogsymedioslasclaves
deunarelaciondeinteresmutuo.html Note 6: We have avoided posts referring to the launch of
Bitacoras.com
• “Informe anual sobre el desarrollo de la sociedad de la
información en España, eEspaña 2008”. Fundación Note 7: Data analysis was made with the time differences of each
Orange. country.
http://www.fundacionorange.es/areas/25_publicaciones/e
2008.pdf Note 8: We consider a blog network, a user with more than 8 blogs
in its profile and expressly declares so. For the study we have included
• 11ª Encuesta AIMC a usuarios de Internet. Febrero 2009. those networks that ping our system.
http://www.aimc.es/03internet/macro2008.pdf
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 28
29. 6. Acknowledgments
Fernando Garrido
http://estrelaselimons.blogsome.com/
Tíscar Lara
http://tiscar.com
Fernando Tricas
http://fernand0.blogalia.com/
Sonia Blanco
http://www.filmica.com/sonia_blanco/
José Luis Orihuela
http://ecuaderno.com
Sergio Mahugo
http://www.egaleradas.com/
JJ Merelo
http://atalaya.blogalia.com/
State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 29
30. Author: Bitacoras.com – Come’n’Click Networks, S.L.
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State of the Hispanic Blogosphere 09 30