Technorati says that only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs have been updated in the past 120 days.

That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled.

NYT looks at some of the possible reasons why old time bloggers have stopped blogging altogether.

Many people start blogs with lofty aspirations — to build an audience and leave their day job, to land a book deal, or simply to share their genius with the world. Getting started is easy, since all it takes to maintain a blog is a little time and inspiration.

Mr. Jalichandra of Technorati points out that some retired bloggers have merely found new platforms. Some of that activity has gone to Facebook and MySpace, and obviously Twitter is a new phenomenon.