As consumers eagerly post word-of-mouth commentary in online communities, message boards and Web logs, a straightforward question confronts brandmeisters: Who wins and who loses as time-tested practices of mass production and mass marketing are undermined by the informed and often cranky voices of the knowledge age? “

My question is: if the blogosphere didn’t exist 4 years ago, what did? Weren’t those same people experiencing the same brands and sharing their thoughts via word-of-mouth? Of course they were!

Blogs do enable more conversation. But, the reason isn’t that the conversations weren’t happening before, the reason is that they were just never recorded and easily accessible.