Keeping Up with the Blogosphere

News outlets. Sources of corporate leaks. Mindless dithering. Whatever you call blogs, they've got a foothold in the Internet that keeps growing. According to BusinessWeek's May 2 cover story, blogs now number 9 million, and 40,000 more appear every day.

It can be hard to cut through all that chatter, but the BusinessWeek article makes the case for businesses to try. Peeking at what regular people are writing about in their blogs, no matter how inane, can provide a real-world taste of what the bourgeoisie has on its collective mind. And companies can no longer ignore this growing phenomenon. "Let's assume that 99.9 percent are...off point," the article says. "That leaves some 40 new ones every day that could be talking about your business, engaging your employees or leaking those merger discussions you thought were hush-hush."

Indeed, some companies are watching blogs closely and using what they see to help their businesses flourish. "Already, studios are using blogs to see which movies are generating buzz," the article explains. "Advertisers are tracking responses to their campaigns."

So how does one keep up with the blogosphere? You can search blogs using sites like Technorati and PubSub. And online photo-management site Flickr lets you see other people's digital pictures, many of which are also posted to their blogs. This kind of look into what people are talking about can also be found on blog aggregator sites like Boston's Universal Hub.

Here at Monster, we keep an eye on work-related blogs -- it helps us generate ideas and stay in tune with important workplace issues. Any way you look at it, there's lots you can gain by keeping up with blogs.

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