It seems like an unlikely result, given the dominance of men on my top blogger lists, but girls and young women are actually the Web's newest most prolific users, according to the latest Pew statistics.

According to a report in the Times Online, the "study by the Pew Internet Project in America on teens in social media found that blogging growth among teenagers is almost entirely fueled by girls, whom it describe as a new breed of "super-communicators". Some 35% of girls, compared with 20% of boys, have blogs; 32% of girls have their own websites, against 22% of boys."

Experts are attributing the rise, which also shows girls climbing in the numbers using social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Beebo, to the increasing social nature of the Internet. Young women are more likely to seek out outlets of expression and communication, and the Internet provides a convenient resource.

According to one expert in the Times report, "I put this down to girls being open to communicating, having longer attention spans and more widespread interests. We have to be inventive and diverse in our female content. Boys are easier, they will download pictures from galleries, viral ads and videos, but they're in and out again."