Agreed. It would be interesting to also see 'average characters per word', to see whether this has DECREASED as the number of words has increased - almost a 'dumbing down', so that the title can still fit into the 66-70 character Google limit (before it cuts-off the result title in the search results pages).

Probably, but I'm still not convinced that blogs overall have trended toward lengthier titles. I'm more willing to hypothesize that writers over the past few years consider the variables in context for their writing.

What may make sense as a package deal on a single page may look nonsensical in a Google search or a twitter post.

Longer titles may simply be an occasional consequence of this.

Yes, but the implications are very interesting I think. There'll be demand for new solutions eventually. Both on Search-side and on the micro-blogging front. What will those solutions be?

Get ready for the wave of Viral Tweet Optimizers....