Type the word "blog" into Google's search box, and you'll receive a whopping 515 million search results, nearly twice as many as you receive for "sex."

Love 'em or hate 'em, blogs are the real deal. Even if we deflate the hype and ignore the overly optimistic prognostications of the blog A-list evangelists, we still have unmistakable, off-the-charts development with huge, ever-evolving implications.

2005 was a milestone year for the blogosphere, even more so than 2004. Why is that? There are more good reasons than this brief column can do justice to, but here are the key headlines.

On the global front, according to FeedMap's visual tracking of blog origins, English-language blogs from the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia are increasingly joined by blogs from Malaysia, India, Taiwan, Turkey, Japan, various European countries, and other places around the globe.

In 2005, everything got a lot simpler in the blogosphere, further prying open the door for the average Joe, even Grandma, to walk through. All the major blog tool creators -- TypePad, WordPress, Bloggers -- launched simpler, more convenient utilities, with more templates, great instructions, easier ways to upload photos and videos, and a just-check-this-box mentality. Simplicity also powered a shift from blogs as diaries to blogs as personal organizers.

The emergent "add water and stir " platform helped power an important, highly noticeable shift from text to multimedia, or what I call consumer-generated multimedia (CGM2). Photo-sharing platforms and moblogs (define) saw incredible growth, and blog tools made it easier to integrate all manner of multimedia, evident in a new "here's my baby" video tool I recently discovered. Rocketboom found new audience, and Unilever tested a virtual on-the-road online reality show that leverages vlogs (define).

In 2005, traditional media continued its fixation on blogs as media cops, the outing of Dan Rather is the most celebrated example. But bloggers also played a growing, conspicuous role as copy cops. Bloggers embarrassed companies that didn't measure up to product positioning, publicly critiqued bogus copy claims, outed shills, initiated Jeff-Jarvis style outbursts against customer service, revolted against "bait and switch" e-commerce tactics, and more. Even Gawker Media, built on a successful ad model, concluded it was OK to critique and expose brands through its new Consumerist blog.

Despite all the hype, no single brand blog changed the game. Even GM's FastLane Blog, ranked in BlogPulse's top 500, barely moved the needle from a traditional ad reach perspective. But it did succeed in catalyzing fresh thinking and a new mindset in corporations about conversations. Most companies still struggle with managing more flexible, agile service interfaces with consumers. The advent of brand-sponsored blogs (however lame) and employee blogs (however controversial) shifted rules and changed the mindset.

2005 saw Apple's stock price increase exponentially, and blogs played an important role in keeping the brand visible, if not dominant, in the eyes of consumers. The white headphones have become a family crest for people who "get it," but, by exporting playlists, the iPods have become a new form of consumer-generated media (CGM) itself. Interestingly, iPod users create and share CGM at dramatically higher rates than all other consumers. Consequently, the brand reaped massive viral gains around new product launches, especially the video iPod.

Podcasting got plenty of play in 2004, topping Wikipedia's charts as a frequently searched term. But it clearly found a tipping point this year, with "USA Today" front-page headlines and Adam Curry migrating from innovative DJ to venture-funded entrepreneur. This year saw a proliferation of long-tail consumer-generated audio content, but the equally interesting story is the old form -- traditional radio -- didn't die. Instead, it found new life. Radio stations such as NPR emerged as a popular source for listening later, and other radio stations simply reformat existing content.

For a while, we wondered where they were, but eventually all the big boys jumped into the consumer blog space. Yahoo! initially primed the pump with early use of RSS feeds, then migrated to offering blog-like publishing tools. Google launched a long-anticipated blog search engine. MSN also moved more aggressively in this space, and AOL introduced blogs and the "Live Web."

By and large the media peacefully coexisted with bloggers this year, especially those in the A-list community. But writer Dan Lyons of "Forbes" crashed the party with a hostile, take-no-prisoners cover story accusing bloggers of being a "lynch mob." Bloggers freaked, so much so that at least one PR blogger, Jeremy Pepper, suggested the intense reaction proved "Forbes" correct. Whether or not you buy "Forbes"' article, one thing's clear: in the blogosphere, no one's immune to scrutiny, including the bloggers themselves.

Some blogs simply went too far. That pushed companies and organizations into creating new policies, from adopting employee blogging policies to outright bans on blog activity. "Ad Age" added fuel to the fire with a hotly debated article implying employees waste time reading blogs. Microsoft and IBM said, "Blog away!" And Apple laid down the gauntlet with "Think Secret" on purported blog leaks. The military, meanwhile, awakened to the reality of soldier-generated media (SGM) and struggled to figure out the right balance between blogs as battlefield-based boredom-inoculators and blogs as intelligence leaks.

All manner of new blog ad models popped onto the scene in 2005, and some blog networks proved so successful, they were sold to the likes of AOL. There were downsides. Google AdWords, for instance, made it so easy to embed advertising in blogs that a whole new type of blog was born: the splog (define). Splog posts spiked as high as 25 percent of all blog posts.

PR firms generally had more to say and contribute on the blog front than either interactive shops or traditional ad agencies. Many of the higher impact bloggers that captured marketers' attention owed their background to PR, and I'm talking well beyond just Steve Rubel. Key shops such as Edelman, Ketchum, and Weber Shandwick developed robust practices in blog monitoring and word-of-mouth management, while standalone players like BL Ochman single-handedly led innovative brand-meets-blog programs like Budget's Scavenger Hunt.

If you're still scratching your head, one last recommendation: start your own blog. Seeing is believing. It will immediately help you connect the dots on what's happening in the fast-evolving blogosphere.

Pete Blackshaw , whose professional background encompasses politics,interactive marketing, and brand management, is chief marketing and customer satisfaction officer of Cincinnati-based Intelliseek, a buzz analytics firm that helps brands measure, track, and quantify consumer-generated media (CGM). Intelliseek also manages BlogPulse, one of the web's top blog portals. A former interactive marketing leader at P&G and founder of consumer feedback portal PlanetFeedback.com, Pete co-founded theWord-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). He is a frequent speaker at interactive marketing industry events, serves as Ad-Tech advisory board member, and authors several blogs including ConsumerGeneratedMedia.com and HybridBuzz.com .

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