241 Pizza

The trend for politico-blogs has also spread to the UK with Boris Johnson launching his own site – www.boris-johnson.com – though most of the content there appears to have been added by his blog assistant, "melissa". However, the media-friendly former Tory frontbencher should beware. Senator Kerry overwhelmed President Bush in the blogging stakes, according to Comscore, a web analytics company, only to be beaten in the election itself.

American politicians had already become used to the massive influence peddled by bloggers. President Clinton was impeached after details of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky were posted on the Drudge Report, a blog that specialises in political scandal. More benignly, Howard Dean raised nearly $15 million from October to December 2003 by mobilising supporters through blogs - setting a record for a Democratic presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, prompted by politics and in a gesture of acceptance from an old-media stalwart, the American dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster's, dubbed "blog" its "number-one word of the year" for 2004.

The company, which defines a blog as a "website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks", said that "blog" was one of the most looked-up words on its internet sites and that people had used its websites to look up words in news headlines.

"That is what occurred in this year's election cycle ... with voluminous hits for words like 'incumbent', 'electoral', 'partisan', and, of course, our No 1 word of the year, 'blog'," said John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president and publisher.

Following BoingBoing in the most-cited stakes came three political blobs - the DailyKos, Instapundit and the Drudge Report.

"Blogs are proving to be powerful resources for sharing news and keeping issues alive in the public's mind," Pete Blackshaw, the chief marketing officer of Intelliseek, said. "CNN reaped a tremendous amount of awareness by making the Stewart transcript available on its website."

Big business is now taking up the blogging gauntlet. Microsoft launched its own blogging tool this month, which will be free to anyone with a Hotmail or MSN Messenger account. The service is aimed at home users who will trade exposure to on-site advertisements for the opportunity to post photos, keep a journal or share media playlists.

The plan is seen as a part of Microsotf's strategy to tap online revenues. The website paidcontent.org said: "Microsoft doesn't want you to use the MSN website as a gateway - it wants you to live there."

Top blogs

1. www.boingboing.net
2. www.dailykos.com
3. www.Instapundit.com

Top people

1. President George Bush
2. Senator John Kerry
3. Harry Potter

Top websites

1. www.Hello.com
2. www.Quizilla.com
3. www.Memegen.net

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