• by Paul Gough , May 21, 2004

If we needed any more evidence that blogging has arrived, then we have it today: It has arrived at The Gates of Redmond, Wash.

Gates spoke this morning to the Microsoft CEO Summit in Redmond, which gathered a bunch of chief executives to talk about technology. While Microsoft has been criticized in the past for not jumping on the Internet bandwagon soon enough, they seem destined not to make the same mistake again. He talked up blogging and RSS as a way to let people know that a Website has changed without being too intrusive.

"There might be people who might be interested in it or might feel like if it gets forwarded to them they'll wonder why I didn't put their name on it," Gates said. "But, then again, I don't want to interrupt them or make them think this some deeply profound thing that I'm saying, but they might want to know."

Does blogging hit the big time soon? Some may think it has already but I'm not sure. While I have a few that I go to on a regular basis, you've got to wonder one thing: Is there anybody out there? I've spent my career writing for a living yet working for mass-reach and trade outlets, I've never worried about whether I was writing for more than a handful of people. And, for the most part, I've kept my opinions to myself. That's diary stuff.

But here comes blogging, which as the Real Media Riff has pointed out in a recent column, threatens to overturn the equation. Gates positions blogging and RSS in that space between a possible waste of time going to see whether a Website has been updated and the imposing nature of an email.

"The ultimate idea is that you should get the information you want when you want it, and we're progressively getting better and better at that by watching your behavior ranking things in different ways," Gates said.

By Paul J. Gough