From blogs to news, Internet watcher sees Web maturing
ANDRE MAYER Wednesday, January 1, 2003
For Web heads, the year 2002 was marked by the war over pirated music, the popularity of Web logs and a greater reliance on Internet sites for breaking news stories.
According to Internet watcher Tiffany Shlain, in 2003 we can expect to see the movie industry make greater use of the Web to distribute DVDs, and there will be a reckoning for so-called spam advertising.
As founder and director of the Webby Awards, an annual competition that determines the world’s best Web sites, Ms. Shlain has become one of the foremost arbiters of Internet taste and etiquette. In late December, the San Francisco-based Web guru released a list to recap the year gone by and highlight trends likely to emerge in 2003.
For Ms. Shlain, the biggest developments of 2002 included the rise in instant messaging and the proliferation of Web logs (or “blogs”). Blogs are regularly updated Web journals that address specific issues and offer links to similar sites. Observers estimate there are about 500,000 blogs currently on-line. Evan Williams, who runs Blogger.com, told Wired News that 41,000 new blogs were created last January alone.
Next entry: Six Log
Previous entry: The Homeless Guy
