The free WSJ today features a Lee Gomes column, "Tech Blogs Produce New Elite to Help Track The Industry's Issues":

The easiest way to follow this world is via a useful blog-tracking service called tech.memeorandum. The site runs off software written by Gabe Rivera, a former Intel compiler programmer. It sifts through hundreds of technology-oriented blogs to find the hour's hot topics and who is saying what about them. The results are presented concisely in a single place, updated every few minutes. Another site, blogniscient.com, offers a similar service. (It is apparently important in the tech blog world to pick a name that is as awkwardly unspellable as possible.)

A couple of other interesting points:

In the great big real world of mainstream media, 12,000 is a rounding error. But in the new blog order in the tech world, that number is big enough to include the entire universe of decision makers, thought leaders, first movers and all relevant wannabes and hangers on.

The major difference between politics blogs and tech blogs is that many of the former still depend on the mainstream media to provide the grist for their mills. The tech blogs, though, have become a world onto themselves, and require no such crutch.