Given the small number of people who read or write in the Dutch language in global terms, it can sometimes feel like very few people abroad are following the online traffic from this little country by the North Sea.

But judging by the number of Dutch blogs among the 150 nominees for the Best of the Blogs awards (BOBs) announced on Thursday, somebody is obviously paying attention.
Run by the German world service broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the BOBs are the largest and most prestigious international weblog awards. In addition to the nominations for Best Dutch Blog, there are Dutch nominations in several other category.
These include the blog of newspaper Volkskrant for best international/overall weblog, the tongue-in-cheek news website geenstijl.nl for the most notable, surprising or revitalised blog and the Dutch site which translates as ‘we-are-staying here.nl’ for the Reporters without Frontiers Award.
An international jury of bloggers, journalists and media experts from 10 countries will meet in Berlin on November 14 to select the winners who which be announced the following day at a ceremony in Berlin’s Museum for Communication. And probably on a lot of blogs.