Yesterday Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced its pioneer attempt at blog services with the launch of a beta Web log service in Japan. The service will be free and has a nifty feature allowing authors to access and update blogs with their cell phones. Japan, where 90% of households have Internet access and close to 90% of handphones are Internet-enabled, would make an ideal testing ground for Microsoft. Blogs are pages where users can publish their thoughts online, aided by a host site that automates most of the process. They have long evolved from teenagers whining about their love life to a useful tool for corporate communication. One of the forerunners of this was id Software programmer John Carmack, who used a ".plan" file to update users of his progress when developing the PC game Quake. Soon many developers followed his lead.
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