A new Gallup poll says the average American is not wild about blogs. Blog readership hasn't increased over the past year or so, even though Americans are spending more time online, writes Al Tompkins at PoynterOnline, citing Gallup's annual Lifestyle survey (sub req.), conducted Dec. 5-8, 2005. Some 9 percent of internet users say they frequently read blogs, another 11 percent read them occasionally, 13 percent say they rarely read them, and 66 percent say they never read them.

These findings are in line with a Gallup study of blog use conducted in February 2005. At the time, 9 percent of web users said they read blogs daily or a few times a week ("frequently"), 10 percent read them a few times a month ("occasionally"), 13 percent read them less often than monthly ("rarely"), and 63 percent never read them.

Meanwhile, according to Technorati, the blogosphere continues to double in size every 5.5 months, with 75,000 new weblogs being created daily - or, on average, a new blog every second.