Blogs-to-books have included Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander, Jessica Cutler's The Washingtonienne and Ana Marie Cox's Dog Days.

Out this week is It Sucked and Then I Cried, a memoir by Heather B. Armstrong, creator of dooce.com, a well-trafficked blog and website in which she writes about her depression and pregnancies.

Publisher Simon Spotlight Entertainment has high hopes for the book (75,000 first printing), which it believes stands alone.

"It's her voice and her very distinct point of view which makes a great book," publisher Jen Bergstrom says.

The 31-year-old hip-hop superstar recently was accused of hiring a "ghost blogger" to post blog entries for him on his official blog.

Said accuser claims, "I know you don't really believe Kanye West updates his blog several times a day while chasing skirts and displaying his astounding ignorance all over the world? Hopefully you're not that naive. Sure Kanye wrote that one outburst on his blog, but no, he doesn't find all those neat gadgets or post those videos and photos from the road. Someone else does all that for him."

Stage One: Infatuation

I just got e-mail! I can't believe it! It's so great! Here's my handle. Write me! Who said letter writing was dead? Were they ever wrong! I'm writing letters like crazy for the first time in years. I come home and ignore all my loved ones and go straight to the computer to make contact with total strangers. And how great is AOL? It's so easy. It's so friendly. It's a community. Wheeeee! I've got mail!

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Stage Three: Confusion

I have done nothing to deserve any of this:

The Democratic National Committee needs you. Virus Alert. FW: This will make you laugh. FW: This is funny. FW: This is hilarious. FW: Grapes and raisins toxic for dogs. FW: Gabriel García Márquez's Final Farewell. FW: Kurt Vonnegut's Commencement Address. FW: The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. AOL Member: We value your opinion.

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Stage Five: Accommodation

Yes. No. No :). No :(. Can’t. No way. Maybe. Doubtful. Sorry. So Sorry. Thanks. No thanks. Not my thing. You must be kidding. Out of town. O.O.T. Try me in a month. Try me in the fall. Try me in a year. NoraE@aol.com can now be reached at NoraE81082@gmail.com.

This morning when I was driving home a real blast from the past come on. Does anyone remember Meco's theme from Star Wars? It was kind of a disco inspired riff on the John Williams music from the original movie. I loved that song as a kid. I was ten years old when Star Wars came out and I was mesmerized by it. It almost seems cliche to say that now, because so many people say that Star Wars influenced them, but honestly it's the truth. My walls were covered with Star Wars pictures, I had the albums (yes, vinyl), the comics, the toys, the books--you get the idea. So when I heard that song on the radio today it took me back. I was actually going to switch it off because it's so cheesy, but something stilled my hand. By the time it was over I had a great big grin on my face.

Psychologists talk about a "sensitive period" in which children are open to grasping concepts like language, where they are more apt to learn then other times. I wonder if there's a sensitive period for creativity. Maybe mine came when I was ten, sitting in that theater with my father watching Darth Vader appear for the very first time. I saw Star Wars thirteen times, but as I got old my adoration for it naturally faded. By the time Empire came out I only saw it three times, and when Jedi came out I was a senior in High School and--amazingly--didn't bother seeing it at all. Kind of sad how things change. I've seen Jedi since, of course, and I liked it, but nothing will ever measure up to being ten years old. It's just not possible.

Anaa Wintour is as picky with words as she is with her wardrobe. According to one Vogue-er, "They are expanding the Vogue Web site and getting more involved with the Internet. But Anna hates the word 'blog' so much, she refuses to call anything on her site a blog and has charged her staff with coming up with a new word that isn't as garish-sounding. She wants it ASAP - in time for launch."

However, a source close to Wintour said, "Anna just doesn't want people to refer to stories as blogs, because they're not. It's an improper use of the word." A rep said, "Anna has nothing against blogs."

Blogs are set to become mainstream media with more than 80 million people aged 16 to 44 writing one. The finding comes from Web 2.0: The Global Impact, a study by Universal McCann into the consumer adoption of web 2.0 and associated technology like social networks and podcasts.

The study, claimed to be the largest of its type, interviewed 16,000 frequent web users aged 16 to 44 in 15 markets. The study found 48 per cent of respondents had visited a blog; 26 per cent wrote one; and 20 per cent planned to start one. China is the world's biggest blogging market with 25 million people writing one; more than double the number in the US. This is well ahead of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, which share five million.

Social networking continues to gain momentum with 69 per cent sharing photos online, while 74 per cent have reviewed a product or service. However, podcasts and RSS have failed to make an impact, with just 17.4 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, having downloaded or subscribed to these services. Tom Smith, EMEA senior research executive at Universal McCann, said: "The changing internet is radically altering users' media habits the world over ... these are real challenges that brand owners and media companies must face up to now - not in 10 years' time."

The online writer was jailed for eight years in 2003, after posting comments that criticised official corruption. Last year Yahoo was accused of giving information to Beijing which led to the imprisonment of reporter Shi Tao. Reporters Without Borders called on Yahoo to release the names of all internet writers whose identities it has revealed to the Chinese authorities.

Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako insisted that in its dealings with China, the company "only responded with what we were legally compelled to provide, and nothing more". "We were rigorous in our procedures and made sure that only the required material was provided," she told the AFP news agency. But she added that: "The government of China is not required to inform service providers why they are seeking certain information, and typically does not do so." Reporters Without Borders said it was not acceptable for the firm to say it simply responded to requests from the authorities without knowing what the data would be used for. "This argument no longer holds water," the group said in a statement. "Yahoo certainly knew it was helping to arrest political dissidents and journalists, not just ordinary criminals."

The Chinese government enforces strict laws on internet use, blocking content it considers a threat, including references to the Tiananmen Square massacre and notable dissidents. But major international firms wanting to do business in China, the world's number two internet market, are coming under increasing pressure from rights groups not to conform to Beijing's conditions. Four major US-based companies - Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Cisco - have been accused of collaborating with China to censor the internet.

Editor & Publisher: Any comments, serious or humorous, about these three major 2005 journalism stories: Massive layoffs at newspapers. The "Plamegate" leak case. "Pundit payola" to conservative syndicated columnists.

Dave Barry: 1. The newspaper layoffs are just depressing. 2. I tried to follow "Plamegate," but it turned out to be WAY more complicated than calculus, so I gave up around the time they indicted "Scooter," whoever "Scooter" is. But I do feel that, if we're going to be throwing journalists in jail, there is no excuse not to at least make an effort to get Geraldo. 3. I think paying pundits is a terrible, terrible thing, unless for some reason I get back into punditry, in which case I will be all for it.

"There really has been a need for a world-class search product to expose this dynamic content to a worldwide audience," said Jason Goldman, who came to Google in the Blogger deal and is now the company's product manager for blogging search.

Over the past two years, blogs have become an increasingly popular vehicle for sharing opinions and information, sometimes breaking news and more often prodding the mainstream media into reconsidering how it has handled some big stories. First word of Google's new searching tool was, in fact, disseminated by a blog.

A few people have been able to make a living largely off their blogs, or parlay them into book deals. Blogs also have been a source of embarrassment and angst, resulting in the firings of several workers, including a Google product manager, who angered their employers with revelations posted on their sites.

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"This sort of feels like 1995 when the Web was just starting to explode. Now it feels like the same thing is happening to blogging," said Bob Wyman, chief technical officer for PubSub, which offers a Web feed subscription service.