The "faint of heart" may wish to censor the following post, or at least some of it.

The blog probably started mostly with kids who thought it was "cool" to have their own web site, and then couldn't think of anything to post. The concept has been picked up by some real nuts, and a few more serious "bloggers," and seems to be getting to be pretty popular. Although a majority of blog sites are pretty inane, and some outright lunatic (you pick which is which) some companies have actually encouraged employees to creat blog sites, as a means of "keeping people in touch."

One example of a fairly useful one can be found at Jim Louderbeck's blog. Louderbeck does a weekly "whats new" e-column, and much of the stuff at his blog site is just copied from there, but you do get some "little extras" with stuff that's opionionated, trivial, or just curious – but doesn't fit in the column. Jim has said "they made me do it."

eWeek has a page linked from their "Microsoft Watch" with "A List of Current and Former Microsoft Employees Who Blog:" at Microsoft bloggers. These are listed by the name of the blogger who runs the page. Pick a favorite enemy and see what he/she is talking about. If you know the right ones to watch, you can sometimes pick up some "what's happening" info, but it usually takes more time to wade through the trivia than the little bits are worth. The list is "impressive" in its extent, but you make your own evaluation of the blog content.

Censor from here down, if needed.

The "new" phenomenon is the "photo-blog." While they violate the criterion that one blogger should "own" the blog site and be the source of all the material posted, there are several sites where people with "phonecams" can take a picture (with their digital telephone's built in minicamera) and have it immediately transmitted and posted. Pictures can only be sent from a "phonecam," so you can't "fake your way in" from a computer. One of the first, and possible the only still "all free" ones is at mobog. (You can click on the "Censored" at the top to "uncensor" and see everything, but it doesn't really matter because it only "censors" what the "submittor" tags as objectionable.) Perhaps encouraging for a brief look if you think your photos are a little amateur or inane, but be warned that this stuff seems to be most popular with the "young and h…ny." NOT for children, although there are several other similar "technology" sites that might be.

One that amounts to a blog, at Obscenely named site was started by the same guy who runs mobog when he got ticked off at similar sites that purport to tell you what companies you should invest in. This one tells you what ones have f…d up and are about to "tank" – in his opinion. He does have a "credible" scoring system, and you might get useful information here, although the "format" is borderline.

NO RECOMMENDATION IS MADE that anyone actually use any of the above.

John