And next...buzzblogs.

Here's a story from this morning's New York Times about am A.C. Nielsen unit called "BuzzMetrics" that, along with several other companies having less nimble PR agencies, monitors blogs and bulletin boards and web sites...no, wait..."drill down into rich veins of extemporaneous word-of-mouth commentary and conversation" is what they do...in pursuit of "one of the corporate world’s holy grails," branding!

“The days of sitting behind the focus-group wall are going the way of the buggy whip,” said Mike Nazzaro, BuzzMetrics’ president and chief operating officer. “We are fundamentally changing the way marketing and market research will be done in the future. We’re providing guidance to marketing decisions that was never possible.”

Indeed.

[As the computer maker Dell discovered....] The company’s level of service and quality was denounced by bloggers this year, and the complaints found broad exposure when one popular media site added its critical voice.

At the same time, positive word of mouth magnified by the Internet can be a boon, as Toyota discovered with its hybrid Prius sedan, which has been praised by admirers on sites created just for that purpose.

Imagine the possibilities.