CINCINNATI, Ohio (December 1, 2005)  -- Fictional character Harry Potter led President George W. Bush as a source of personality "buzz" among bloggers in 2005, according to BlogPulse.com, a blog search engine and analysis web site maintained by Intelliseek Inc.

Blog references to the President peaked at about 3% in early September, when Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. But Potter managed to generate higher and more consistent levels of discussion throughout the rest of the year. Potter was mentioned in 5.5% of all blog posts in mid-July, when Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince book was published, and in 2.5% of blog posts in January and November, respectively, when "The Goblet of Fire" movie trailer and film premiered.

Pete Blackshaw, Intelliseek's chief marketing officer, will discuss these and other year-end blog trends during a free webinar, "Blogs 2005: Year in Review," at 4 p.m. Dec. 7. Sign up here.

Other key blog developments in 2005 included the growth of "splogs" (spam blogs) and efforts to derail them, and the growing migration of online advertising to blogs. Some of the "burstiest" phrases used by bloggers in 2005 (those that appeared spontaneously) included: Katrina, bombings, hurricane, Rove, Batman, Willy (Wonka), disaster, pope, Sith, London, victims, donations, pirate, Intel, terrorists and flood.

"Blogs have become deeply woven into the fabric of consumer conversations," says Blackshaw. "Whether bloggers are discussing personalities, celebrities, political issues or technical trends, they've emerged as influential and entertaining sources of information and commentary."

Intelliseek, which measures and analyzes consumer-generated media for major brands, also manages BlogPulse.com, a blog search engine that maintains an index of more than 19 million blogs. BlogPulse.com provides daily analysis of key personalities, news stories, blogs, phrases, most-cited links and other data culled from new blog entries.

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