The Gallup News Service published the results of a recent poll about the blog awareness level of Americans, and the numbers aren't staggering towards overall readership. While the Gallup poll is correct to state that the influence of blogs on media outlets and those who strive to be "in the know" is high, is it really surprising that the vast majority of Americans - regular Internet users or not - are not aware of blogs?

Lydia Saad's question of "whether bloggers are directly influencing the broader public" is a bit of a quandary, because the follow up I'd have to suggest for this survey is what the overall "time to market" is for news and information to hit the general public, or "mainstream" discussion. Obviously I'm biased as a blogger, but I have to say that my on-top-of-it-ness has significantly increased since I began reading and writing weblogs, and the large number of people using instant messaging devices and software has changed the way we learn about what's going on around us. So while Americans may not be directly aware of what blogs are, that doesn't mean they don't know people who are bloggers. Those bloggers could be, in some circles, viewed as influencers (or "sneezers" if you like Seth Godin), spewing forth the news and info that they learn on a daily (hourly?) basis to their circle of contacts.

I'd be interested to see some measurement of this "speed" that information is now being disseminated, as compared to the same type of thing two or three years ago.