The Internet is not only for porn

Some stories hit you with the power of new media. This is one.

Members of the Web community review experiences for each other. It's a shared hive-mind in which neurons fire messages back and forth.

Who'd stay or even have heard of Gassime's Hotel Europa in Florence without the Web? Or of the Donna Rosa Ristorante in Montepertuso, also in Italy? Because netsurfers have enjoyed and recommend these venues, Web-savvy travellers make a point to go there.

It's little things like these recommendations, bringing the obscure niches to a wider audience - which, not coincidentally, was what Netsurfer Digest was all about - that make the Web such a powerful public tool.

Bonus complaint of the day:

Is anybody else as ticked off as I am over Blogger's new log-in process? Google has associated Blogger accounts with Google accounts, and now I have to log in with my Google address, then log in to Blogger's new beta service, get rejected as a beta applicant, then go to my Blogger dashboard page. Am I missing something? Is there an easier way?