The 2008 Philippine Blog Awards was concluded Saturday evening with the awarding ceremonies at the Esplanade in Pasay City, Metro Manila. Finalists in the 23 categories were narrowed down from hundreds of nominees, with winners selected by judges from various fields, mostly in the new media industry.

With the aim of recognizing notable Filipino-owned blogs in different niches, the Philippine Blog Awards was launched in 2007 to showcase notable blogs with quality content that engages readers from around the globe. This second year of the event marked the inclusion of network blogs written by Filipinos, blogs written by mainstream media practitioners as well as local corporations that use blogs are effective communication tools.

Two of our folks from Splashpress Media (which also owns the Blog Herald) were also finalists: Sophia Lucero’s Stellify.net was a finalist for Best Blog Design, and this writer for Best Network Blogger.

A list of winners can be found at itot54joni.com. Update: The official list has been published.

Postscript: Read organizer Jayvee Fernandez’ closing remarks, which talks about the three head fakes of blogging.

If you were to throw a party in honor of your blog, how many people would turn up?

One of my lovely clients, Kathryn Finney, wrote to tell me how I missed out on a brilliant party. Their bash was to celebrate 5 years of Budget Fashionista.

At New York Fashion Week.

Over 500 people attended, with 100 queuing to get in! read more

I have been collecting topic suggestions from my readers this week and one of the replies I got was not a suggestion for my forthcoming content but a cry for help.

This blogger had been notified by a visitor that some of her old posts were, while funny, likely to land her in hot water. She quickly thanked the visitor and unpublished two or three of the worst offenders.

That wasn’t where the problem ended though. read more

I agree with Gruber, this is truly a focused blog! The Ampersand blogs about, you guessed it, ampersands. Only ampersands. And you know what? It kind of works, because we’re linking it and so does Kottke and Liquidicity, and probably even more than that. The design twist of it all makes it something anyone remotely interested in typography, logo design, or just ampersands I guess, can at least take a quick peek at. Got to love niche blogging, right?

At least one new blog is launched every second, making it virtually impossible to keep up to speed with what’s new. That also means newbies have an uphill battle in getting YOUR attention. Here are some blogosphere newcomers:

Measure for Measure: The New York Times launches ‘How to Write a Song and Other Mysteries,’ authored by four prolific song writers:
Andrew Bird, Suzanne Vega, Rosanne Cash and Darrell Brown.

According to the paper, the blog hopes to “pull back the curtain on the creative process as [these songwriters] write about their work on songs in the making.”

AnimalsNeedHelp: A 100% not-for-profit blog that is dedicated to the prevention of animal cruelty and pet issues worldwide. The venue aims to education people about the companies that still do animal testing, use animal’s skins in the design of fashion apparel and keep animals locked in tiny cages for food or entertainment. All money raised goes to charity.

Shine: Yahoo’s latest blog venture targets women between the ages of 25 and 54. Think Cosmo quiz in a fancy blog template. Shine features the best writers and bloggers in women’s publishing. There is also a social community aspect so women can hook up and do us men in (joke).

Know of any good blogs that have recently launched?

When the Internet first started to become mainstream, I was at the age when nothing mattered - except girls. Everyday I’d walk down the block to my buddy’s house. We’d boot up his beast of a computer and log on to Prodigy.

Seven letters/numbers stood between Queens, NY and the rest of the world: NCJG34B. My first assigned screen name.

Once logged in, the mission was simple: Find girls of the same age, initiate e-mail contact, exchange pictures through snail mail and eventually meet. Of course, this meeting had to culminate in some sort of ‘action,’ or else it was considered a bust.

If it worked like a charm back in the early 90’s, I can only imagine the number of casual hookups the Internet is responsible for today. It seems TOO easy. But isn’t it always when you’re happily married, sitting on the sidelines.

What’s my point? Here it is: I think anticipation has left the building.

As we move towards an on-demand society, I can’t help but wonder if something is lost with all of this immediate gratification. TV gets paused, albums leak weeks in advance and I can find the value of my home and the picture of an Ex in about eight seconds. This ‘information now’ trend has been spearheaded by constantly-updated blogs.

Information overload is here, and I’m kinda thinking it’s too much. Every good geek worth his or her salt loves data. But is there a downside to having access to too much stuff? Your thoughts please…