Many insiders' negative views of this segment are rooted in its propensity toward unauthorized image use. However, one could argue that bloggers did not invent copyright infringement; they are simply a reflection of the society's level of legal awareness. While problematic and requiring continued effort and education, the problem of image piracy is not insular to blogging.

Conversely, bloggers have made a number of positive contributions to the industry. Thousands of corporate, political and entrepreneurial bloggers routinely license imagery. This group has been important to the continued growth of microstock and Web-use image licenses. In addition, new ad-supported image-licensing products from GumGum, PicApp and Mochila attempt to monetize the consumer traffic generated by blogs.

The Beijing Olympics and U.S. presidential elections are generating record levels of blogging activity, with experts predicting sustained growth of the medium. Driving this growth is a younger demographic with higher minority percentages and democratic leanings, says recent data from Ohio-based online intelligence company BIGresearch.

More than one-quarter of the population blogs. Bloggers' average age is 37.6, about seven years younger than the general population. Most bloggers are white (70%), male (54%), better-educated yet lower-salaried than average. African American and Hispanic ethnicities are better represented among bloggers than in society at large.

While clearly inclined toward technology and the Internet, bloggers remain swayed by conventional media, which triggers follow-up online activities. For example, nearly 50% of BIGresearch respondents said they conduct searches after reading a magazine article, and TV and newspapers had respective penetration rates of 45% and 40%.

Numbers of blogs keep growing along with their influence. Technorati is currently tracking over 110 million English-language blogs. At last count, China had over 70 million, according to The China Internet Network Information Center.