‘400pc increase’ in Irish bloggers


15 Jan 2007

The number of Irish people blogging on the internet is understood to have increased from around 1,000 to between 3,000 and 4,000 people, the organisers of the Irish Blog Awards have claimed. They said the exact figure may actually be higher.

Scribes who make up Ireland’s blogging community will have a chance to prove they’re not just any Joe-who-blogs at the second annual Irish Blog Awards, which will take place in early March.

Last year humorous blogger Twenty Major was top of the blogs, winning the Best Blogger Award, the Best Blog Post Award and the Most Humorous Post Award.

The awards were organised by Damian Mulley of IrelandOffline to recognise new talent in this field.

The blogging community has asked Mulley for extra categories and as a result they have been increased from 13 to 21 to include new areas like best business blogs, best music blogs as well as podcasting and video.

“Being a community event, it was the bloggers themselves who chose the categories to nominate each other in,” Mulley explained.

“Anyone can nominate a blog and it will be the public who will vote to whittle the nominees down to a short list, from which a set of judges will take over to rate the best quality Irish blogs.”

Running concurrently to the Irish Blog Awards will be a competition for the Best Irish Bebo profile.

The social networking site now counts hundreds of thousands of Irish people as members.

“While still very new, Bebo in Ireland has more reach to the youth market than any radio or TV show,” said Mulley.

“The next web generation are learning the ropes on sites like Bebo and the point of this award is to show this generation that creating unique and entertaining content can win them recognition.”

The blog awards are free to enter and encompass a nomination round, followed by a public vote, followed by a final judging round. Nominations can be made on http://awards.ie/nominations.

The awards will take place at 7.30pm on 3 March at the Alexander Hotel in Dublin. MC for the evening will be 2FM DJ Rick O’Shea.

The awards are currently at the nomination stage and a short list will be released in February.

By John Kennedy