The team at Infographiclabs put together a great infographic that provides a visual representation of the state of the blogosphere in 2010, which was first published on The Blog Herald.

The State of the Blogosphere 2010 infographic provides a concise look at the demographics of bloggers around the world as well as an interesting chart showing the annual revenues compared to investments for bloggers who consider themselves to be hobbyists, part-timers, or self-employeds as well as the average of all bloggers.

What do you think of the state of the blogosphere in 2010 based on this infographic?  Anything stand out as surprising?  It’s interesting to consider how this infographic looked 10 years ago and how it will look 10 years from now.

comScore released statistics related to the U.S. mobile market for July 2010 this month, and a few highlights stand out:

• Google continues to steal market share with its Android device in the smartphone market, but RIM continues to dominate the market with its BlackBerry device.
• When it comes to mobile content usage, text messaging is the dominant activity.

Let’s take a closer look.

When it comes to smartphones, BlackBerry continues to hold onto the lead with 39.3% market share compared to the closest competitor, Apple, with just 23.8%.  Coming up from behind is Google with 17.0% market share and growing.  In fact, between April 2010 and July 2010, Google saw a 5.0% increase in market share while RIM and Apple experienced market share declines of 1.8% and 1.3%, respectively.  Microsoft and Palm bring up the rear at a distant 4th and 5th place.

Perhaps even more interesting is the data comScore released related to mobile content usage in July 2010 in the United States, which is shown in the chart below.

There is no doubt that text messaging is the dominant mobile content consumption activity, but the two biggest activity gains can be seen in online activities — using a browser, which saw a 2.5% increase between April 2010 and July 2010, and accessing social networking sites or blogs, which increased by 1.9%.  Coming in third place in terms of growth according to the comScore study is downloading apps.

Clearly, the future of content consumption on mobile devices looks bright based on the comScore statistics.  For authoritative publishers, like the publishers who syndicate their content through Newstex, mobile content consumption represents yet another way to put valuable content in front of engaged audiences!

While Twitter started out a few years ago as a social tool where people could communicate in real-time via short snippets, the team behind Twitter believes the site has evolved into something quite different — a news site.

In a presentation at Nokia World 2010 yesterday, ReadWriteWeb reports that Twitter’s vice president of business and corporate development, Kevin Thau, made the case for the site’s evolution into a news delivery tool.  Thau cited examples like the plane crash in New York’s Hudson River that was shared first with the world via an eyewitness’ tweet.  This is just one example of how both news organizations and individuals around the world not only turn to Twitter to share breaking news but also to “consume” news.

News related to the protests after the Iran elections not long ago trickled out from Iranian citizens via Twitter.  News about earthquakes in Haiti was communicated via Twitter.  Even the news of Michael Jackson’s death, first communicated via a blog, was consumed and verified via Twitter.

In other words, Twitter usage patterns have changed significantly in the few years since the tool debuted.  Today, there are 145 million active Twitter users, but according to Alexa, Twitter gets 910 million unique visitors, placing it in the top 10 largest websites.  Considering that 60% of Twitter’s growth today is coming from outside of the United States and the growing number of people with smartphones that make using Twitter on the go easier than ever, there is no doubt Twitter will continue to grow and evolve in the coming years.

Furthermore, yesterday Twitter announced its first redesign since the site’s debut, which is aimed to keep users on the site longer in order to attract more advertisers to make larger investments.  The redesign, paired with the site’s repositioning as a news source, makes a clear statement about where the team behind Twitter wants the site to go in the near future.

What do you think?  Do you use Twitter for news gathering, for socializing, or both?  Will the new design of Twitter affect your usage habits?

Newstex syndicates all of the tweets from U.S. Senate and House of Representatives members (check out the screenshots from the Newstex Politwits mobile app below), so our ears perked up when we read recent statistics about Twitter use by the U.S. government’s elected officials compiled by public relations firm Burson-Marstellar and published on Politico.

Here are the key statistics that might surprise you:

• 8 out of 10 of the most-followed Twitter accounts of Senators and Congressmen and women belong to Republicans.
• 67% of Republicans on Capitol Hill are actively using Twitter compared to just 41% of Democrats.
• 68% of House Republican Twitter accounts use the @reply feature to directly communicate with other Twitter users compared to 46% of Democrat accounts.
• 39% of Republicans maintain a second Twitter account for campaigns from their offices compared to just 31% of Democrats.
• An average of 4,820 Twitter users follow Republicans compared to just 2,972 for Democrats.
• In July, Republicans experienced a 6.7% month-to-month growth rate in terms of Twitter followers and Facebook likes compared to just 3.6% growth for Democrats.

Are you surprised by these statistics?  Considering how closely tied to Twitter and other tools of the social Web President Obama’s campaign was, one would think that there would be a wider focus on building social media relationships and influence within the Democratic party.  Two years ago, Republicans were playing catch up.  It seems the tables have turned.

What do you think?

Newstex President Larry Schwartz is a member of the Steering Committee for the 2011 SIIA Information Industry Summit to be held in New York City on January 25 and 26, 2011.   Again in 2011, the SIIA Previews event will be held during the SIIA Information Industry Summit, and early-stage, innovative content and content technology companies are invited to apply to present before an audience of industry leaders.

CEOs of selected companies will be allowed to give a 5-minute presentation and have 5 minutes of Q&A before the Information Industry Summit audience, which will include more than 300 C and VP level executives from major information and content technology companies, as well as bankers, analysts, bloggers and press. Selected companies will also receive special promotion opportunities during the SIIA Information Industry Summit and feedback and coaching from the event Steering Committee.

Check out the SIIA Previews web page for eligibility and entry requirements as well as a more detailed list of promotions and opportunities that selected companies receive along with requirements for acceptance.

When you’re ready to apply for the 2011 SIIA Previews, you can follow the link to complete the application.  All applications are due by November 19, 2010.