An email published on a blog knocked $4bn off Apple’s stock market valuation on Friday…before it was exposed as a hoax.
This kind of story dismisses any doubt about the impact of blogs, but does raise the interesting question about the meritocracy of knowledge and information. How was one blogger allowed to have such a massive impact on a huge multinational company? Surely truth should be the preserve of those in the know, rather than those willing to take a stab in the dark. Apparently not! The blogosphere is inhabited by those who know and those who don’t, and the key for those searching for information is to ascertain the difference between the two. With the advent of search engine optimisation this is easier said than done, because those that come top of the Google / Technorati rankings are not those that have more interesting or incisive comment, but those that have more money. Those in the know who are often kept quiet.
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