“Marketers say bloggers' unsolicited opinions and offhand comments are a source of invaluable insights that are hard to get elsewhere. "We look at the blogosphere as a focus group with 15 million people going on 24/7 that you can tap into without going behind a one-way mirror," says Rick Murray, executive vice president of Edelman, a Chicago public-relations firm.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

“Marketers Scan Blogs
For Brand Insights...”

Source: Wall Street Journal

“Blog-monitoring services typically charge big companies $30,000 to $100,000 a year.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

“Another way many people use RSS feeds is by incorporating content into weblogs, or "blogs". Blogs are web pages comprised of usually short, frequently updated items and web links. Blogging as a publishing tool is used for many purposes: traditional journalism, personal journals, group discussions around a topic, and many combinations in-between.”

Source: Yahoo! News