About 50 million blogs, or online multi-media journals, were tracked on the Internet last month, a 100-fold increase over three years, a study, quoted by an AFP report, said.
The report said the study, published online by Technorati, a Web site devoted to tracking the growth of the worldwide "blogosphere," claimed that the number had doubled every 5 to 7 months since January 2004, and looked set to reach 100 million by next February.
Last month, Technorati said it logged 175,000 new journals every day, an average of two per second, with 1.6 million blog messages posted daily, double the volume a year ago.
English-language sites made up 39% of the total, followed by Japanese at 31% and Chinese with 12%, the study said.
Some 8% of new blogs, however, were, in fact, spam sites, known colorfully as "splogs," which had slipped through the search engine's net undetected, the study further said.