2004-10-06 14:50:58

Another sign that blogging is becoming mainstream

Hoover's collects information about companies and sells it to other companies.  Last year, they were acquired by Dun and Bradstreet.  D&B was founded in 1841 and is almost certainly the world leader in their market.  Suffice it to say that this company is "mainstream" in the business world.

Yesterday I was surprised to learn that the Hoover's overview on SourceGear contains information which could only be found on my weblog.  The byline says we are covered by an analyst named Jeff Dorsch, and I have never spoken with this gentleman personally.  In the course of researching SourceGear, he not only visited my weblog, but also my silly Not-A-Legend site.

I recognize that weblogs have obviously been steadily gaining traction over the last few years, but this still comes as a pleasant shock.  I would have assumed that it would take several more years before firms like Hoover's and D&B would use weblogs in their research.

Strictly speaking, I know that everything I write here is accessible by anyone in the world.  However, I still think of my site and its readership as an exclusive club, the members of which are all geeks and early adopters.  Normal people are not allowed, not because I deny them access, but because they simply don't know where to look.

If I cared enough to preserve the elitism of my club, I suppose I could just require a login.  Instead of username/password authentication, I would ask my visitors a question that only a clueful geek could answer: 

• In vi, which key moves the cursor one character to the right?
• What is the last name of the person who created Java?
• True or false:  In the original episode IV, Greedo shot first.

This would fun, but the fact is that I like the notion that normal people are starting to read weblogs.  This change is not bad -- it's just different. 

Jeff, you and your ilk are quite welcome here. 

And BTW, your number for SourceGear's 2003 revenue is wrong.  :-)