NACH.COM

Microsoft is finally getting into blogs, and they’ve recognized the mobile connection, and they’re testing first in Japan - all smart moves. I still hear media people brag about Microsoft’s entry and retreat from local publishing, via CitySearch. The brag is that Microsoft learned how difficult it is to be successful with local media. Maybe.

As citizens continue to extend their influence on the global media flow, companies mediating that flow, like Google, all the social nets, and now Microsoft, will be the digital infomediaries. Beyond publishing and distribution, they enable contextual and transactional connections between and among individuals and advertisers. It’s plausible to see their roles becoming as integral to society as that of the newspaper companies that mediated the analog information flow of the last Century.