Watch out - the webloggers are coming. There's no escape and if you can't beat them or join them, you might as well go offline.

If the word "webloggers" strikes you as odd, you're already behind the times.

A weblog is a kind of web site, maintained by an individual or group and updated often, usually several times each day.

People who do this are called webloggers.

Interest in weblogs has grown with astonishing speed during the past year or so.

A few years ago it was possible to post a list of all weblogs on a single page and design it in such a way a reader would not even have to hit the scroll button to see them all.

But with their exponential growth since then, weblogs have attracted international interest and are becoming an important means of digital communication.

If you think this is all just hype from someone who's been a blogger from the early days then I refer you to some of the fascinating gossip and rumour on the net in the past couple of weeks.

First is the story (as yet unconfirmed officially) web giant AOL is looking at weblogs as its next big customer service.

If true, you can't blame the management at AOL for picking up on a hugely popular trend and trying to make some money from it.

There are already thousands of weblogs but imagine how the so-called "blogosphere" will look if millions of AOL customers worldwide start adding their personalised commentary.

The large web corporations have taken a long time to wake up to the reality and possibilities of weblogs but that changed when search company Google (www.google.com) purchased blog software company Pyra (www.pyra.com) earlier this year.

Suddenly, weblogging was a topic of interest to investors and financiers, CEOs and chief executives.

Many still don't understand what they could get from weblogs but AOL's reported interest is just the start.

Another businessman who has clearly shown his interest in the phenomenon is one William Gates, who called weblogs "important" and whose software company is working hard on integrating weblog publishing tools into Windows.

This is where weblogging ceases to be a geeky backwater and starts turning into a business.

Weblogging evangelists see weblogs as a medium in their own right, something that goes beyond the web itself.

They predict weblogs on corporate intranets, weblogs for political debate (there's already a few of those) and weblogs for public debate.

This last idea is the foundation for the BBC's forthcoming project, codenamed iCan.

It will offer people a means of making their voice heard on issues that matter to them - digital activism combining weblogs, discussion boards and opinion.

What is hard to take in when you first start exploring the world of weblogs is just how vast it all is.

But start at one (try www.scripting.com), and you can keep following link after link and find yourself covering huge geographical distances, gaps between religions, political doctrines and cultures.

Is all the corporate interest a good thing for weblogging? Ask 10,000 bloggers that question and you'll get 10,000 different answers.

It is largely welcomed increased interest in weblogs by big companies means there will be more of them, and more weblogs means diversification of the blogosphere.

But with so many new weblogs now appearing, the scene is fragmenting.

It's hard to break in on a well-established group of webloggers if you are a weblogging new kid on the block.

The weblog story is by no means over: It has barely begun.