If you don't believe in the power of Weblogs, ask Dan Rather. The CBS anchorman found his journalistic reputation in tatters after several blogs helped expose as forgeries the documents Rather used on a "60 Minutes" report questioning President George W. Bush's National Guard service.
Bicycle lock manufacturer Kryptonite also had a first-hand experience with the nascent power of Weblogs after bloggers played a big role in exposing how one of its locks could be picked with a ballpoint pen. Kryptonite was slow to react, underestimating the power blogs have in allowing a company's customers to communicate with each other, according to some observers. The bottom line is that companies no longer control the flow of information as they used to.

"My interest in blogs in general flows out of my perception that society has become massively connected," said Simon Phipps, Sun Microsystems' chief technology evangelist, who has three blogs himself. "I agree with `The Cluetrain Manifesto': Markets have become conversations."

The implication is that markets, prior to the rise of the Internet, were essentially monologues. Today, with the rise of technology in general and the Internet in particular, markets are increasingly becoming dialogues, and blogs represent a perfect example of the trend.