According to a new study by Marketing Daily, eight out of 10 Americans know what “blog” means, and nearly half have visited the blogosphere – some even on a daily basis.

"The high awareness is surprising given that blogging is an emerging media outlet. The segmentation on awareness and usage, and on people having their own blogs, is driven by age, with obviously younger people more active in blogging," said Tom Mularz, senior vice president at Synovate eNation, which conducted the online survey of 1,000 U.S. adults.

Based on Technorati's data, there are 99.9 million blogs out there. Since there are too many choices, it is not surprising that 54.4 percent of blog readers surf a variety of blogs rather than stay loyal to a few, an eNation study reports. Moreover, the blogosphere is similar to the real world: Men are more commitment-phobic than women – About 60 percent of males surf a variety of blogs, while 50 percent of females do so.

In spite of the trend that any emerging media poses a threat to traditional media, 87 percent of the people who read blogs said it does not decrease their time with other media now that they are reading blogs. Of the 13.3 percent who have ditched old media habits, newspapers, television and magazines have taken the biggest hits.

"Blogging is incremental to other media that people use. This is a good omen. That newspapers are being somewhat replaced is not surprising. Newspapers are under attack on a variety of fronts as new media outlets open up." Mularz said.

Advertising spending on blogs is still in the initial stage. A consulting group called Marketspace reports 99 percent of gross online ad revenue is allocated on the top 10 sites. Another study by Nielsen BuzzMetrics and Nielsen's BASES research division indicates that new products with higher ad spending on traditional media tend to generate greater buzz than in the blogosphere.

However, there seems to be a real potential for blog ads. According to an eNation study conducted in late July, among people who have visited a blog, 43.2 percent said they have noticed blog ads, and three out of 10 in this group said they have clicked on ads while visiting a blog. Among the young consumers between 18 and 24 years old, 61.2 percent said they have noticed blog ads.

And who's blogging? Eight percent of Americans have their own blogs.

"That's high, given that blogging was unheard of a few years ago," eNation's Mularz said. It is also surprising that more women than men are bloggers. Nearly 14 percent of men versus 20 percent of women have blogs, eNation reports.