Denton wouldn't comment on the sale of Consumerist, an advocacy site with attitude that he put on the block last month. And he would only confirm that Defamer, his attempt to break into Hollywood coverage, is for sale.

But I'm told that Consumerist may have fetched something in the "mid-six figure range," and that a logical buyer for Defamer would be BuzzNet, the pop culture blog network that picked up Denton's Idolator music site earlier this year.

I want the Fast Lane to be a true on-line community, and I encourage you to submit your comments and thoughts. After all, if I'm going to insist on twenty-first century solutions for our transportation system, I better communicate in a twenty-first century way!

The blog has received about 11,000 site visits since 10 a.m. compared with 13,000 daily visits to the main DOT Web site, the agency said. Comments are reviewed to make sure they're free of personal attacks, slurs or inappropriate language. If a topic attracts hundreds of comments, an agency spokesman said a representative sample of them may be posted instead.

The agency also plans to start hosting Web chats with Peters and other senior DOT officials as well as building a YouTube.com video page some time this year.

In Peters' second post, she announced from Chicago that the city was awarded a $153 million federal grant to reduce traffic congestion and pollution. Guest blogger Mayor Richard Daley followed with a post of his own thanking the department.

Darrell West, a public policy professor at Brown University, said that government blogs represent an opportunity for officials "to shape and be shaped by public opinion."

"Blogs inherently are interactive and help agencies learn what is on people's minds," he wrote in an e-mail. "I see this as a plus for agency responsiveness."

The result is an intensely personal window into the lives, preferences and quirks of the powerful tastemakers at Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, who have spent years shielded from public view.

Their decisions about what makes it onto Wal-Mart's shelves have enormous effect, earning (or costing) vendors millions of dollars. It was a blogger on Check Out, after all, who first disclosed last month that Wal-Mart would stock only high-definition DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format, rather than the rival HD DVD system. The decision was considered the death knell for HD DVD.

On the blog, Marvin Deshommes, a merchandise manager in the lawn and garden department, tells readers that he belongs to the Christian Life Cathedral church. His favorite quote from the Bible is Luke 12:48 -- "To whom much is given, from him much will be required."

Joe Muha, a video-game buyer, discloses that Ayn Rand is one of his favorite authors. Danielle Pribbernow, a toy buyer, talks about her cat, Sierra.

Wal-Mart says the Web site helps buyers solicit quick feedback from consumers on the merchandise -- and shows a softer side of the giant company, which has 5,000 stores, 1.2 million workers and annual sales of nearly $400 billion.

"Targeting crotches with a bull's-eye is not the message we should be putting out there," she said in an e-mail interview.

Target offered an e-mail response:

"Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets," a public relations person wrote to ShapingYouth.

"This practice," the public relations person added, "is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest," as Target refers to its shoppers.

Word of the exchange quickly spread and the blogosphere did not appreciate the slight. "Target doesn't participate in new media channels?" asked the Web site for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Target "dismisses bloggers" commented the blog for Parents for Ethical Marketing. "Ahem! So bloggers don't count!" Ms. Jussel chimed in on ShapingYouth.

Yes, at least for now. "We do not work with bloggers currently," said a company spokeswoman, Amy von Walter, who agreed to speak with this traditional media outlet.

"But we have made exceptions," Ms. von Walter said. "And we are reviewing the policy and may adjust it."

In a way, Zillow is attempting to combine its real estate data with the citizen journalism movement, encouraging people who live in select neighborhoods to upload photos, events, news and other information.

The idea is that people will not only visit Zillow to learn about homes, but -- one could imagine -- local restaurants, recent crimes or the history of the neighborhood. With this feature, you could also see Zillow moving down the path of trying to link people together in certain neighborhoods to share a lawnmower, sell a grill, host a fundraiser or, perhaps, find a date. And if that occurs, the real estate information and Zestimates offered by Zillow today might just be a Trojan horse into other lucrative advertising markets.

With its third issue, Blueprint: Design Your Life, the newest lifestyle magazine from the creators of Martha Stewart Living, is introducing Bluelines, a daily blog today. In our need-to-know-it-now age, this blog is an immediate and essential extension of the new, bimonthly periodical, Blueprint. Bluelines features fun finds, favorite sources, inspiring ideas, and clever shortcuts for women ages 25-39 who are interested in creating and refining their own personal style. The Blueprint blog is part of the launch of the blueprintmag.com website, which links to marthastewart.com.

"Bluelines adds another exciting dimension to Blueprint. Readers are constantly looking for new ideas and the Blueprint editors are thrilled to share their latest and greatest discoveries with them on a daily basis -- from our favorite online handyman who will tell you how to fix anything to the new oversized tote the entire fashion department is ordering. Now our readers can enjoy an instant fix online along with the sumptuous, in-depth experience they get when reading the magazine," said Blueprint Editor-in-Chief Sarah Humphreys.

The topics are limitless and may range from counterfeit cigars to a new spirit on the market, to a memorable round of golf at a storied track.

The blogs are free for all to view, and subscribers to Cigar Insider can also submit posts and enjoy a direct dialogue with the editors.

"The blogs give the editors of Cigar Aficionado a unique opportunity to write on a variety of topics, not always about cigars and at times on a whim," said Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Cigar Aficionado. "They have been hugely popular with our sister site, WineSpectator.com and we are confident the same will be true for Cigar Aficionado."

Nearly 80 percent of home buyers start their search on the Internet - soon they'll have more to look at.

On its Web site, the Peninsula on Indian River Bay development in Delaware has begun using high-quality, television news-style presentation to sell homes. On the site, viewers take interactive tours of the property, led by two on-line hosts, through different site "channels."

According to Roland Varesko, president of Ecendent Interactive, the production company that put together Peninsula's site, nobody is doing this on as grand a scale as the Peninsula. "It's like having your own TV show," he says.

But the trend is sure to spread. Even now, the economics are such that a development of 50 to 100 homes could afford a Web site like Peninsula's, according to Varesko. And big real estate brokers, such as Century 21, Coldwell Banker (both part of Realogy) and Re/Max, are quickly ramping up.

"I believe streaming videos on Web sites is the wave of the future," says Charlie Young, vice president for marketing for broker Coldwell Banker.

The Rugs Done Right Blog focuses on area rugs, highlighting new styles and trends, care and cleaning tips, purchasing advice and decorating ideas. Blog posts are written by Jamie Carney, an area rug proprietor and the BuyRugsDirect.com site owner. The move to RugsDoneRight.com offers Carney the opportunity to provide additional services to her Buy Rugs Direct customers, and the blog is the first of these new features.

Blog topics vary, but the central theme is always area rugs. Posts are short and succinct, quickly making a point or offering advice before directing readers to a link with more information. Recent posts have discussed: what to look for when choosing an area rug for your home; the proper care and cleaning of rugs; the pros and cons of different materials; and how to install and protect area rugs throughout your home.

Things have changed on the off-line front. I have to go now. It has been a lot of fun. I might be back sometime in the future, but I need to stop for awhile anyway.

TaTa For Now.

Usually, the VHB provides links, charts, stats and commentary (like about the number of properties on the Vancouver market and their average prices, historical patterns, comparisons between Vancouver and other cities) that have the implicit questions -- is this a bubble and will it crash?

His last post on Friday left no indication that a halt was in the works, so those who visited his blog on Monday morning expressed surprise. "This is very sudden and I am sad to hear that the mysterious VHB will no longer be making the prescient posts I have become used to reading over the past 12+ months," said a commenter named Mohican.

"Please!!! Don't go! She'll come round!! Just involve her more...She can do some graphs and you guys can research, together," said a commenter named Mighty Mouse.

"Well good luck with that. If you can, keep the site alive. It will be interesting to go back and check the comments in the future. We are going to look like either prescient geniuses or ignorant boobs. I don't think there is much in between," said a commenter named Freako.

Thanks to all who have posted such nice things over the past few weeks. Life is going very well, thank you. I do miss blogging in a way, but on the whole it is better to get on with the coolness that is life. Enjoy the crash! (Whenever it comes . . .) VHB out.

About a third of those Europeans questioned said they had been put off making a purchase after reading negative comments on the Internet from customers or other web-users, while 52 percent said they had been persuaded to buy after a positive review on a blog.

Get it right, and blogs could be a boost to companies and even save on their advertising and marketing budgets.

Blogs, or weblogs, are a more trusted source of information (24 percent) than television advertising (17 percent) and email marketing (14 percent), the survey commissioned by Hotwire, a technology public relations consultancy, said.

But they still lag behind newspapers (30 percent).

I stopped in at Wal-Mart today after I got off work. I had to pick up a few things. As I was walking past the men's clothing area, something caught my eye. I noticed something weird over at a wall of t-shirts. One of the t-shirts had a design on it that looked remarkably like something related to Nazis. Specifically, the Totenkopf or "Death's Head".

I took a picture of it with my camera phone.

The Death's Head symbol was worn by the members of the German Nazi SS. The Totenkopf on the Wal-Mart t-shirt looks very similar to the divisional insignia of the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf. As you can see, It's almost an exact copy.

Kate began working as a copy editor at the Daily Record in July, after graduating from Lehigh University. She's been living in her uncle's apartment since then -- and is being booted out Dec. 1, when the lease is up. So the 22-year-old is on a quest to find an affordable apartment -- her first apartment -- in the Morris County area.

For 90 days, CHEC is focusing on daily tips that will help you reduce exposure to chemicals, toxins, and pollutants - for the benefit of your children's health, the health of your home, and the environment. Visit us often... and please share your own tips too.

Shoppers are rushing out to buy the hard-to-find toy which quickly disappears from shelves shortly after new shipments arrive. Toledoblade.com reports that experts are saying there has never been a toy this hot so early and that Mattel may sell as many as three million of the super ticklish Elmo dolls.

Starting now, whenever you see someone looking truly awful-or truly chic-take a photo and show the world! Use your digital camera or camera phone and upload, or just browse, rate and comment on other people's photos. Remember, we're talking fashion commentary, not personal attacks. So play fair, and have fun!

You, the user, agree that the photo(s) you are submitting are taken by you, or by someone who has given you the right to submit them. All Don'tspotting photos must be taken in a public place. (emphasis added)

And now Glamour gives you the chance to nominate that bitch in your office who always insists on wearing cropped tights and gold bangles for the former and yourself for the latter. It's called Don'tspotting - and you are the catty paparazzi, responsible for stopping the fashion faux-pauxs from taking over New York. Or, wherever.

Consumer Reports announced today the launch of a new blog, Consumer Reports on Safety http://www.consumerreports.org/safetyblog. This blog will offer consumers analysis of important safety issues and provide need-to-know information for keeping families safe from preventable injury or illness. The entries will cover a wide range of topics including food safety, child safety, product recalls, hidden hazards and more. ConsumerReports.org recently reached a milestone of more than 2.5 million active, paid subscribers, making it the largest publication-based Web site.

Seeking Alpha aggregates and edits information from more than 200 leading investment and industry experts who use blogs, financial newsletters and authored articles to share their personal expertise. The news is then categorized and tickerized to run on the news pages of individual stock quote pages on Yahoo! Finance. Initially, more than 60 articles will run every business day on Yahoo! Finance, covering an average of 100 different stocks on a daily basis.

"The number one objective at Yahoo! Finance is to help our users make informed financial decisions, and Seeking Alpha significantly expands the information we provide to our audience," said Peggy White, general manager, Yahoo! Finance. "The new blog content also brings a different perspective to our users by offering commentary from the experts who work in the financial industry."

Maybe I'm just too good at being single. Maybe I'm just not ready for a relationship. Who knows, maybe I grew up watching too many soaps. These are things I ask myself when I wonder why, after all my relationships, hot dates and hookups, I’m still so single.

I left New York three months ago to escape a future-less relationship with a guy who couldn't commit (I know, shocker). I am still madly in love with him, some might even say addicted to him, yet forbidden to even say his name to friends and family who know it will only cause more heartache.

Until this guy, I had never really had my heart broken. I'd always been the one to walk away (which isn’t necessarily easier): Two years ago, I called off an engagement to The Perfect Man. Something just wasn't right. I was having panic attacks while registering for cappuccino makers and matching bathrobes.

Is this an example of Web 2.0 meeting SOA? Ewald writes: "I envision a system based on 'service blogs,' or 'slogs.' A slog conveys information about the state of a service. As a consumer, I want to subscribe to a slog for each service I use. My aggregator becomes a 'dependency dashboard' that tells me about upcoming service news."

I think "slogging" is a pretty clever name for a very useful service, though it evokes images of never-ending messaging... sort of like slogging through 100 e-mails a day.

Amazon Connect posts will appear in Amazon customers' personal log or "Plog" in the center column of the Amazon.com home page. Each customer's Plog is different (hence the name), and just like a blog, Plog posts are sorted in reverse chronological order. Each post also gives customers the opportunity to provide feedback to the sender or to respond with their own comments. This feedback loop means that each customer's Plog becomes even more relevant and interesting over time. A Plog will appear only if the customer is logged on to Amazon.com, and if posts relevant to that customer's purchase history have been submitted. In the future, Plogs will also help customers discover products that have just been released, track changes to orders and much more.

When the cellphone camera shoots the bar code, the information is automatically sent to a server, which then searches through blogs, or diary-like Web sites, for reviews.

About 10 seconds later, a summary will be displayed on the cellphone screen reporting how many blogs were positive and how many were negative.

The actual comments on the blogs can also be viewed as well as information on related products.

Toshiba categorized about 500,000 Japanese words into fields such as travel and culture, and classified words related to evaluation as good or bad.

How do you jump into the therapeutic fun with the rest of the Everday Hogwash crew? Dig deep into your memories for humorous stories about the way we get treated not-so-nice by companies and then just blog about it (or post about it to your website or whatever other creative outlet you prefer.) Everyday Hogwash doesn't write itself -- we just link together the submissions from all of you.

In the survey of attitudes to blogs most of those questioned, 77%, said they thought the regularly updated web journals were a useful way to get insights into the products or services they should buy.

As many blogs were the work of individuals, many believed that they were more honest and reliable because they were not subject to the same marketing pressures as corporate or commercial websites.

"Consumers are tired of marketing gloss and so the interest in blogs is not surprising," said Paul Halfpenny, product manager at survey sponsor Hostway.

"In 'Blog for Hope,' Yahoo! has created an amazing forum for high profile people to share personal experiences regarding health-related issues," said Dr. Deepak Chopra. "Healthcare is a very personal topic, and the Internet -- and blogging specifically -- provides an environment where people looking for health information can communicate and share information easily. The advantage of going to a health blog is that people find a source of solace, nurturing and sharing, and gain strength and hope from it."

It’s all about the continuing evolution of consumer power. What started out as backyard discussions over clotheslines, where our mothers would discuss their opinions about retailers and products, evolved into 24 hour toll-free consumer hotlines, full-time consumer affairs staffs, letters to the editor and, at times, even protests and boycotts. Consumers want to be heard. They want to actively communicate their thoughts and preferences; as well as expose dishonest practices, false claims and bad service.

The fever may be most intense at Jones' free site, created after his first bubble blog crashed in May from trying to handle its 20,000 daily hits. His latest site doesn't run advertising and therefore he derives no revenue from it.

A self-described "economic activist," Jones, 41, sees his mission as chronicling a seminal financial event, something future scholars can turn to just as historians today would read an anthology of letters written by Dutch tulip traders in the 1630s.

"In 100 years, economists may be studying the comments of this blog because this was a real-time skeptics' log in the middle of a financial mania," said Jones, who rents a house with his wife in Sedona, Ariz., and doesn't own any real estate.

Jones' fervor stems largely from his status as a casualty of the dot-com meltdown, when he was the controller at an Austin, Texas, Internet firm that he declined to name. He resigned in 1999 before the company went bankrupt, after he spent a stressful final year trying to convince his entrepreneur bosses that "companies really do need to make money."

The housing market today "is just like the tech bubble," said Jones, who holds economics and business degrees from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. "That's why it's a mania — because people have forgotten the fundamentals."

The idea, in brief, is that instead of being herded into walled gardens, such as eBay, the public will be able to use new structural and organizational tools to form into their own herds. People buying and selling, say, baseball cards, would simply find each other. EBay et al would no longer monopolize their users' data. Instead, they would have to build their business on providing services, such as payments and seller ratings.

So far, the new breed of promotional bloggers seems to be doing everything right. They have a motive for using the medium; they aren't jumping on the blog bandwagon without good reason. Their sites don't just generate awareness and buzz, but connect consumers with the company's products by inviting them into their personal world. Posts on these blogs have a purpose and allow users to relate to the people behind them.