CNET has an interesting article on the history of blogging, saying that the technology is now 10 years old, believe it or not. It asks the question, who started the whole ball rolling? 

I have a more pertinent question for this community, two actually. Who was the first real estate blogger? And, how many real estate blogs currently live in the blogosphere? 

I know Hanan Levin has been doing this for some time, so I'd have to think he was one of the early ones. Other than that, I've no clue.

As to the second, in a recent panel in which I sat as a panelist, the moderator, Brad Inman, pointed that question in my direction. I gave him my honest answer, which was "I don't know." (That is often my answer.) That didn't seem to satisfy him, as he suggested the author of a book on real estate blogging should know better than anyone. So, to save face I made one up. (Frankly, I think he realized I made it up too!)

That confession now off my chest (and boy do I feel better), the question does remain. How many RE bloggers now inhabit the blogosphere? If you know, or would like to venture a guess, I'll gladly entertain your answer. I don't believe any empirical data exists at this point by which this could be verified. If you know of such, please point me to it. 

I did email Technorati's CEO, David Sifry, for a response, but never heard from him. I would think if anyone knows, it's David, so maybe Brad should ask him.   

A Google search on the term "real estate blogs" returns over one million results. Well, that's not accurate. A similar search on Google blog search returns just over 7,000. (In both cases, I put the search term in quotes. Not using quotes around the term brought an outrageous number of returns in both cases.) A Technorati search returns over 26,000.

How important it is to know this number, I'm not sure. I think it has bearing though, if only for historical sake. I do think there is validity in codifying the growth of this movement within the industry as well.

Again, if you know, or even if you'd be willing to venture an educated guess, please leave a comment.