A vote for 'Filipinayzd'

JANETTE Toral is running a search for the Top 10 most influential blogs for the current year. This activity, which covers blogs created from August 2006 up to the present, runs until the end of the month, with 10 lucky ones getting $100 each by August 1.

From our little corner of the blogosphere, only one of those qualified stands out: Irvin Sto. Tomas's Filipinayzd.

Just consider the following numbers: Last June 21, his most popular entry that appeared at our Planet Naga aggregator had 2,084 views; in his own weblog, it had 2,055. Now, as I write this exactly two weeks later, it has grown to 7,616 and 5,590, respectively.

The "Recent Comments" box at Planet Naga too, is now livelier, with 9 of every 10 commenting on his posts. The most popular, of course, is his take on the theory of languages that has attracted 84 comments -- mostly by high school students whose lives are being made miserable by their Filipino subject -- and counting. For an aggregator that is not exactly that well known, this is astounding.

What makes him click? Only one word: niching. As the Tagalog-based Filipino language is trying to evolve mightily, a Bikolano-slash-Nagueño rules the blogosphere.