Blog on Tommy

In 1999 there were perhaps 50 bloggers on the web; by next year according to Perseus Development Corporation consultancy, some ten million blogs will have been created. Not since the 17th century print explosion, which brought serial publication and pamphleteering to a genuinely mass market, has there been such an important shift in the way public opinion is created and shaped.
The US presidential election was the first in which blogs emerged as a force. On election night, more people logged on to the website of Matt Drudge, the godfather of bloggers, than turned to the New York Times website.
In Iran several anti government newspapershave been closed down but the Iranian blogosphere is booming with 6,000 separate blogs. Farsi is now the fourth most widely used language on web logs.
Extract from The Times 13 November.