The number of blogs on the internet is doubling every five months, according to blog-tracking site Technorati. The total is now around 20 million, with around 1.3 million posts made each day. Most are no more interesting than overhearing another person's telephone call, but there are exceptions that can have a remarkable impact.
An example was posted on a Monday evening by Windows guru Mark Russinovich, co-founder of the Winternals system utility firm. On one of his PCs, Russinovich found what he took to be a rootkit - software which disguises its own presence and hooks deeply into the system. Thinking his machine was compromised, he investigated. The culprit, says Russinovich, was some software installed by a Sony BMG music CD on sale in the US.
Intended to enforce digital rights management (DRM), the software was slowing his PC by scanning running processes every two seconds, even when no CD was playing. When he deleted these unwanted drivers, which he had to do manually as there was no uninstall, the CD drive disappeared from Windows explorer. Russinovich was able to fix his system with low-level tools, but the average consumer would have no chance without expert help.
I noticed this intriguing post in my blog reader, and made a comment on my own blog. So too did hundreds of others. Within 24 hours, the story was picked up by popular sites including Slashdot and The Register. User reviews appeared on Amazon.com warning customers not to buy. "It is a grave security threat," said one reviewer from Chicago, though in reality the worst thing this particular software is likely to do is to crash your PC. "Do not buy Sony music CDs," said another blogger.
I called Sony Music in the UK, and a spokesman assured me that no DRM software is currently installed by any of its UK music CDs, though the company is still looking for viable DRM solutions.
In October the US business magazine Forbes argued that bloggers are destroying brand value. "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective," stated journalist Daniel Lyons. It was a one-sided view, but makes a valid point: on the wild web anyone can state an opinion, anonymously, and there is little redress when the "facts" are wrong. But the Russinovich example shows the other side of the coin. His careful analysis is not an ill-considered rant. Firms get things wrong sometimes, and in these cases the power of the blog works in the consumer's favour to keep big business honest.
Blogging is here to stay, and its influence is real, regardless of whether you regard it with loathing, boredom or admiration. What can a firm do in the face of PR disasters on blogs? Almost anything other than ignore them.
As in the Sony case, information soon becomes misinformation, and the extent of problems may be exaggerated. In the blogging era, crisis PR means getting the facts out quickly, perhaps via blogs. Meanwhile Sony's UK customers can breathe easy. But it might be wise to turn off the autorun on your CD drive - in case another CD vendor tries this trick.
