Toronto Star media columnist Antonia Zerbisias thinks blogs were the story on her beat for 2004.

An excerpt:

In media terms, 2004 was definitely the year of the blog.

That's why I almost fell off my bar stool last week when a fellow Star scribe revealed he didn't know what a blog is. Hadn't he been paying attention to, um, the world?

"Blog" — as you, dearest and most faithful reader, well know — is short for weblog, an online repository for, depending on the host's passions and predilections, news and views about everything from pop culture to politics to pantyhose, with links to other like-minded blogs.

According to dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster, "blog" topped the most looked-up terms on its website in 2004.

Which means that, despite the hype, blogs remain alien to most. In fact, although the number has likely grown, only 4 per cent of wired Americans regularly visit blogs, according to a 2003 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

So perhaps my colleague can be forgiven for being out of the bloop.

Her picks for top blogs?

RIGHT-WHINGERS: Best place to begin is with the Western Standard's Shotgun (westernstandard.blogs.com) where you'll find a cross-section of bloggers cross-posting to this site and their own. On meatriarchy.blogspot.com, you'll find rants about Prime Minister Paul Martin and raves about spareribs. Daimnation! at damianpenny.com is usually astute but predictable while letitbleed.blogs.com is obsessed — brilliantly — with the Star. Brock On The Attack (noncogent.blogspot.com) is literate and unabashedly conservative.

LEFTIES: My Blahg (myblahg.blogspot.com) is always challenging. You have to love stageleft.info for its outrage. Peace, Order and Good Government (http://www.pogge.ca) has liberal views on Ottawa and the U.S.

JUST FOR FUN: Both betterlivingcentre.ca and torontoist.com focus on local culture and media. And for us girls, secretstorm.blogspot.com is a gal pal in your computer; she knows just what you're thinking about: boys, clothes and Bush.