New blog created every second

One new blog is created every second, according to online research firm Technorati.
The company's latest State of the Blogosphere report recorded 14.2 million blogs worldwide, up from 7.8 million in March, representing a doubling roughly every five months.

The growth also reflects a growing use of blogs outside the US where the phenomenon first mushroomed. Technorati found significant growth in Japan, Korea, China, the UK, France and Brazil.

Blogs, which can be created in a matter of minutes from sites such as TypePad, Blogger.com and AOL Journals, allow internet users to publish information and pictures, making additions as often as they please.

There is also a growth in so-called 'moblogs' to which people using camera phones can instantly send pictures and text.

Blogs appear to have invaded most aspects of online life, with some gaining legendary status.

Salam Pax, the celebrated Baghdad Blogger, offered a unique insight into life for ordinary citizens during the Iraq war. Later his true identity was revealed and he has gone on to work as a contributor to print and TV media.

Another anonymous blogger working under the title Belle de Jour recorded intimate details of her life and work as a London prostitute. The widely read blog gained critical acclaim and led to a book and TV contract.

Blogs have also invaded the corporate world, but with mixed results. Ray Ozzie, creator of Lotus Notes and founder of Groove Networks, was an early corporate blogger who warned in his diary in 2004 that "there may be a need for some kind of code of conduct to ensure that company blogs do not breach company confidentiality".

His words were prescient. Later that year and throughout 2005 a number of bloggers were fired for breaching company policy or simply being too honest.

In September 2004 air hostess Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life as a flight attendant.

She was suspended by Delta Airlines for posting 'inappropriate images' on her blog, one of which showed her draped across seats inside one of the airline's planes.
But blogs have principally become a means for millions to share the minutiae of their lives to friends and family and any others who care to read them.

There is little doubt that the blog, once written off by critics as an irrelevance, has become a new literary form.

• Digital diaries: The art of blogging
• Blogs on VNU