Greg Sheffield at Newsbusters links to an article in iMedia Connection which asserts that blogs are not only continuing their rise, but that they have been mainstreamed into internet users' online activities. Take a look at the statistics:

• Visitation to blogs continues to grow rapidly, showing a 56-percent increase during the past year to 58.7 million visitors. This figure represents 34 percent of the total internet audience.

  
  

• The top blog network is Google-owned Blogger.com, garnering 20.8 million visitors in May 2006. MySpace Blogs ranked second with 14.4 million visitors (up 115 percent), while MSN Spaces ranked third with 9.6 million visitors (up 205 percent).
• The top special interest blog in May was TVSquad.com with more than two million visitors, followed by FreeRepublic.com (up seven percent to 1.6 million visitors) and Breitbart.com (1.6 million visitors).
• Visitation to the Blogs category skews toward younger internet users. People between the ages of 12 and 17 are 21 percent more likely than average to visit blogs, while those 18 to 34 are 14 percent more likely to do so.
• Blog visitation also shows slight skews to higher income households. Households with incomes of at least $75,000 are eight percent more likely than average to frequent blogs.

Although these statistics prove what bloggers and blog readers already know, the numbers are staggering. The Wizbang family of blogs is right up there with over 1.1 million readers in May. No wonder the mainstream news outlets have surrendered to the "if we can't beat them, join them" strategy.