"... Google now estimates that the average blog is read by one person," says Adam Nagourney at The Caucus, the New York Times' political blog.

(I'm not great with statistics, but I think that means you'd get less than one reader if your blog is below average.)

Nagourney got the stat from Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who was speaking at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Florida. As Schmidt talked about the struggles facing American newspapers, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said, "You know, if some of them went out of business, it wouldn't be all bad."

But he frowned in concern as Mr. Schmidt went on to talk about the risks of truly unfiltered blogs spreading unverified and often false information about elected officials.

"Most of us now fear or have great concerns about what you are talking about," Mr. Barbour said. "Things can get on the Internet that have no relationship to fact."

Mr. Schmidt responded: "I share your concern, passionately."