I?ve been watching the business web since it poked its head out of the chrysalis 12 years ago, but I still haven?t got used to the speed at which it develops. Or rather, the speed at which people see an opportunity and leap on it. Take blogs ? online diaries or commentaries that can be published by almost anyone, and replied to by almost anyone. In the last 12 months they have gone from being an obscure and little understood fringe activity to something we all have to think about, and quite possibly indulge in. Google?s launch of a blog search (http://blogsearch.google.com) will both feed the phenomenon and act as a stamp of respectability. But I don?t think it is time to drop the ?little understood? tag quite yet. I wouldn?t say I?m sceptical (I?m planning to start a blog myself), but I do think the great bulk of blogs will fail to get any sort of momentum.

I found myself a list of corporate blogs at www.thenewpr.com, which I topped up from my own meanderings. These are external blogs and the list, not surprisingly, is dominated by IT people. That is inevitable ? the early business web was dominated by techies, who stamp the path for others to follow.