Now, with two reporters from established news organizations facing jail time for defying an order to divulge confidential sources to a federal grand jury, bloggers are clamoring for the same legal protection that journalists are accorded under the First Amendment.
But they won't get it. Besides, even if they did, it wouldn't be of much use.

"Salivating morons." "Scalp hunters." "Moon howlers." "Trophy hunters." "Sons of Sen. McCarthy." "Rabid." "Blogswarm." "These pseudo-journalist lynch mob people."
This is excellent invective. It must come from bloggers. But wait, it was the mainstream media and their maidservants in the elite journalism reviews, and they were talking about bloggers!

I believe blogs will grow increasingly prominent, because they offer interesting and unique content, are easy to search and organize, and have the potential to generate notable revenues and profits through the use of online advertising (primarily keyword search) and affiliate marketing. Gawker Media is another major network of blogs.
I wouldn't be surprised to see companies such as these make news on the financing front in 2005, by possibly raising private capital or taking steps toward an IPO. I believe some of the businesses highlighted above have bright futures. We'll see if investors (private and public) agree.

In the world of political blogging, bloggers are the new paparazzi and the traditional news media reporters and columnists are the new targets.

Technorati is coordinating a Web Spam Squashing Summit in Sunnyvale next Thursday, February 24, and I would like to extend an invitation to all tool developers to attend. Many thanks to Yahoo! for hosting the event on their campus.

Les outils de blog ont apporté une révolution dont les effets sont maintenant admis : de nouveaux usages populaires sont apparus, que l’on peut résumer au fait, pour tout internaute qui le souhaite, de disposer d’un journal personnel en ligne. Mais ces usages ont engendré à leur tour de nouvelles pratiques imprévues. Pour le dire autrement, la nouvelle génération des outils du web, celle des blogs et de la syndication, a déjà donné naissance à ses successeurs et, peut-être, pris “un train de retard".