Anyone, anywhere can set up a weblog

Blogs or weblogs are online diaries - personal web pages that can be frequently updated.

There are thousands of blogs on the web and they are often interlinked, creating an eco-system of ever-changing ideas on the net.

The latest trend is moblogging - updating your blog with a mobile phone.

Programs like FoneBlog, Manywhere Moblogger and Wapblog allow bloggers to post details about their lives from anywhere, not just from a computer

There are an estimated 500,000 people who run blogs and analysts say a quarter of them may eventually update their sites on the go.

Transform the net

In two year's time every phone user will have a website and be using blogs as their version of the world Paddy Holahan, NewBay Software Google buys blogger

Bloggers using FoneBlog simply send text or photos to a prescribed number and their weblog will automatically update.

The system will really come into its own as multimedia messaging and camera phones take off, said Chief Executive of NewBay Software Paddy Holahan.

Family occasions such as weddings or holiday diaries are typical examples of the types of sites people might set up, he said.

Mr Holahan predicts it will transform our relationship with the internet and put billions of bloggers online.

Personal news

"In two year's time every phone user will have a website and be using blogs as their version of the world," he said.

The popularity of blogs was recently acknowledged by search engine Google which bought the technology behind Blogger, the software that powers many of the weblogs around the world.

"Google's buy is a recognition that the news in future will be reported by ordinary people with their own particular bias on stories," said Mr Holahan.