The Presidential Medal of Freedom – America’s highest civilian honour – has gone to historians, astronauts, spies, jazz musicians, matinee idols, philosophers, soldiers, activists, novelists, boxers, televangelists, architects, businessmen, politicians (a depressing number), painters and even newspaper editors.

But this week, George W. Bush, proving that he has spent more time surfing the web than any US president before him, broke new ground when he announced that one of the medals for 2007 would go to a blogger. One might say that now – almost exactly a decade since the first blog issued forth from a pioneer’s keyboard – blogging has come of age.