Anya Peters began writing her blog on February 8th this year, and on the back of it she has just secured a major publishing deal with Harper Collins who confidently expert her first book to hit the top ten.

What is unusual about Anya is that when she began writing she was homeless and living in her car

Well actually that isn't quite true and that's the point. The report actually says that on the whole we are pretty sceptical about blogs and bloggers in general and take everything we read with a liberal dash of salt.

And Brazilians would appear to be the most distrusting of all with 45% of those canvassed saying they didn't trust blogs against the 20% who do. Even in the US where blogging is something of a religion, 38% of people distrust blogs against the 25% who do trust them.

Perhaps even more surprisingly, only 3% of the 10,000 people surveyed, said they turned to blogs for news information.

The report does make happier reading for Indonesian and South Korean bloggers. Not only do 36% of Indonesians trust blogs, against the 16% who do not, but in South Korean a whopping 17% of people regard blogs as their most important news source, even if 25% of them don't trust them.

It appears our most trusted source of news are country-specific television networks such as the BBC, which I suppose is only fair as it is their report.

As they fly around, the data will be gathered and texted back to a blog where it will update an interactive map.

The air brained scheme was dreamed up by interdisciplinary artist and researcher Beatriz da Costa of the University of California.

Together with students Cina Hazegh and Kevin Ponto she will be releasing the pigeons at the Inter-Scoiety for Electronic Arts' annual symposium in San Jose on August 5.

The pigeons will also have cameras to post aerial photos to the blog.

As far as the disciples are concerned you can do no wrong. They worship the ground you walk on and your brand is their religion.

The agnostics can take you or leave you. They may have bought your products in the past, but they are yet to be convinced, and are just as likely to buy stuff from your competitors.

As for the atheists; they simply don't believe in you or your brand. In their minds you don't exist.

But you are trying to spread the word and grow your flock so where should your efforts be concentrated? Who should you spend the most time trying to convince?

Various research undertaken shows that word of mouth recommendation is by far the most trusted form of marketing. If a person whom you trust, tells you something, you believe it to be so.

A company's disciples are its most valuable asset. Do everything you can to repay their faith. And not because you want to keep them happy so they will continue to buy from you but because they are the best chance you have of converting the agnostics and, god forbid, the atheists.

Disciples who love your brand, who are treated well and who feel valued, will spread the word for you. And in today's connected age not only will they tell their friends, their families and their colleagues in person but via email, SMS, instant messaging and in blogs and online communities such as discussion boards, email discussion lists and newsgroups.

Each disciple can potentially talk to millions. And who can resist the recommendation of a disciple?

The viral allows people to direct their own commercials for the new vehicle using a wide variety of video and sound, to which they can add their own text. There are now thousands of the home-made ads hitting inboxes around the world, many of which lampoon the Chevy's ozone-destroying qualities.

A recent article in the New York Times said that Chevy 'got' the web but BL Ochman pours scorn on this claim describing them as 'clueless'. She also says Chevy should have had a plan for responding to the negative ads, but with all due respect, this smacks of the old world PR philosophy that 'everyone must like us'.

Chevrolet spokeswoman Melisa Tezanos said: "We anticipated that there would be critical submissions. You do turn your brand over to the public and we knew that we were going to get some bad with the good. But it's part of playing in this space."

Quite. Those who never liked SUVs still won't. Those who do like SUVs may well now buy a Tahoe instead of an alternative vehicle.

And I would venture that many of those who produced the anti-ads are actually potential customers for Chevy. They have just tapped into the humorous possibilities that the viral offers. Chevy totally get the web.

Here's the ad I made.

Innocent are one of the coolest brands around with a growing reputation. They sell premium priced fruit drink products and have captured a large slice of their market almost solely through word of mouth.

But recently an individual on an email discussion list mentioned that an Innocent drink had exploded covering their clothes with fruit juice. Then others on the list relayed more stories about their Innocent drinks exploding showering fruit juice over their car/clothes/colleagues etc.

This was no doubt seen as a good PR gesture by the firm keen to keep their customers happy. And it worked. Initially. The customers used the email discussion list to report what a good firm Innocent were and how they had generously responded to the complaints.

If it had ended there then there would have been no problem. But a member of the email discussion list then posted on another forum what had happened.

The immediate response from that community was that everyone should write to Innocent, whether they had suffered from fruit juice explosions or not, demanding recompense for an imaginary incident.

And here lies the dilemma for brands today. Conventional PR advice would support the decision to make a grand gesture, turning negative feelings back into positive ones.

But of course in today's new PR ecosystem the message is not contained and the firm is potentially laying itself open to thousands of claims, and has no way of knowing which are genuine and which are false.

I mentioned Innocent's situation to a colleague, saying how sympathetic I was to their plight. In my view however they treated customers claiming to be 'explosion' victims they would end up upsetting some.

He shrugged and said: 'then they will soon make sure their drinks don't explode'.

And I guess that's the whole point.

Apparently there is an increasing trend for people to take their mobile with them when they go to meet their maker. Like the Egyptian pharoes, we want to take our precious items with us, including mobile phones, and apparently in one case even a laptop and Blackberry too.

It seems that the undertakers are not always aware that their 'late' customers still have their mobile phones in their pockets. In fact the trend was discovered when mobile phones started exploding during cremation.

Even more worrying is the thought that following burials, graveyards could be filled with the sound of mobile phones ringing from deep beneath the ground. Not as worrying as one being answered though.

In a nutshell we are entertaining each other by generating huge amounts of information in the form of blogs, podcasts, email, Internet messageboards, videos and so on and so on.

However, mainstream media is fighting to survive, and while fewer people are watching television, listening to the radio or reading newspapers and magazines, these mediums still exists. The net effect being that there has never been more to read, more to listen to or more to watch.

My favourite television programmes are clogging up my Sky+ hard drive, my newsreader software is bogged down in blog posts and I'm surounded in acres of newsprint.

It has become impossible to select or even find the information we are really interested in and even harder to dedicate the time to consume it.

Take podcasts. I'm a real fan of Radio 5 Live but I have yet to listen to one of their podcasts. If I didn't listen to the programme in the first place it was because I had more pressing demands on my time, at the time so to speak. If I listen to a 30 minute podcast I not only miss what is now being broadcast, but I still have blogs to read, blogs to write etc etc.

The other day I caught myself reading the newspaper, listening to a podcast, and watching sport on the TV, all at the same time. The world really has become a very noisy place, and I can't see it getting any quieter.

According to the advertisement 16 million people use Teletext EVERY week. My first reaction was one of surprise that Teletext still exists. I can't remember the last time I looked at it and to be honest I don't know anyone else who uses it either.

The only conclusion I could make was that Teletext was including everyone who uses their online service as well. This still means they are claiming that EVERY week around one in four people including children, either use Teletext on their TV or on the Internet.

Teletext as an information service is as dead as the dodo despite their claim that the original analogue service is still used by 10 million people. The vast majority of people seeking information will turn to the Internet today, not wait for an endless spool of text-based pages which never tell you what you want to know.

The reality is that Teletext is no longer in the information business but is another holiday company, albeit one with a wholly inappropriate name, and dubious claims about usage.

Where that leaves Ceefax is anyone's guess.

Following hard on the heels of the Arctic Monkeys, who owe much of their success to an Internet fan base, Sandi has gone one step further and found a global audience for her music, without even leaving home.

Fed up with chore of lugging equipment and musicians from venue to venue, Sandi decided to set up a webcast from her basement flat in Tooting.

Within days the gigs were drawing audiences of up to 200,000 from all over the world. The media reported on the phenomena and audiences rose still further.

The timing couldn't be better for Sandi. Her single I Wish I was a Punk Rocker is being re-released on March 13th and her debut album 'smile, it confuses people' launches the following month.

The speed at which Sandi has gone from being another hopeful, to a global star in the making, is unprecedented but it proves if you have a good product it has never been easier to get people talking about it.

At the Financial Times Digital Media Conference, several speakers predicted a big rise in the sharing of information among online communities with common interests.

Delegates heard that as more media became increasingly available in digital formats, and traditional models of media packaging and distribution started to unravel, "the customer is king" was fast becoming the industry's new mantra.

Consumers are exercising more control, said Microsoft's Neil Holloway. "People want to connect to information and connect to their friends," he said. "The focus will be on highly personalised experiences."

The scope will exist for far greater personalisation of all forms of content, and end users will be empowered and have greater influence, controlling how, where and at what price they consume content

Lorraine Twohill, director of Google's European marketing programmes, said consumers of news from the media were transforming themselves into providers of information.

Ed Shedd from Deloitte told the FT Conference that in the future media would be delivered to a growing range of devices.

"The scope will exist for far greater personalisation of all forms of content, and end users will be empowered and have greater influence, controlling how, where and at what price they consume content."

According to David Moody of BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial division, one day schedulers might find themselves redundant.

His comments seem fairly relaxed given the dramatically changing face of the media. Consumers are already getting used to 'pulling' information when they need it rather than waiting for something to be broadcast. Mr Moody's prediction could come true a lot sooner than he thinks.

A martial arts expert, and six-time undefeated World Professional MiddleWeight Karate Champion, Chuck found fame after moving into the movies. He starred in numerous films before taking the lead role in long-running CBS television series, Walker, Texas Ranger.

But Chuck's celluloid achievements are dwarfed by his Internet infamy. An online fan base of millions revere him and fear him in equal measure as they swap tales of his speed, strength and manliness.

Here are just a few quotes about this most terrible of men drawn from blogs and discussion boards:

'Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits'
'Chuck once had a near death experience. Needless to say, Death now refuses to come near him'
'Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried'
'Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice'
'Chuck Norris is not hung like a horse - horses are hung like Chuck Norris'
'If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death'
'There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live'
'Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head'

The real phenomenon of course is that online communities overnight created the 'myth' of Chuck Norris. This isn't some clever marketing campaign, it's an organic viral campaign, that has a life of its own. And who knows where it will end.

To discover more Chuck Norris 'facts' put Chuck Norris into a Google search, but whatever you do, don't use the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button...

ANSWERS
1. a £458; 2. b China; 3. c 74 minutes; 4. b 75%; 5. b second position; 6. b 82%; 7. a Saturday; 8. b Mayo Clinic diet

Apple first burst onto the scene back in the late 70s with the launch of the Lisa, the first computer to have a GUI or graphical user interface.

For many years Apple continued to make groundbreaking machines that were regarded as the epitome of chic and cool and which had a slavish following, particularly among the design fraternity.

But gradually the earth moved from under Apple's feet. Market share started shrinking and users started opting for cheaper, more flexible Windows machines that now boasted their own versions of design and graphics software such as Quark Xpress and Adobe Photoshop.

But by the the turn of the century Apple was again producing cutting edge products such as the iMacs and the iBooks and once again the brand was in vogue.

And it looked as if things could only get better when the company launched the iPod digital music player towards the end of 2001. The iPod was an immediate success. It wasn't the first MP3 player by any means but it was by far the sleekest, the most stylish and the most desirable - even if it wasn't the cheapest.

The iPod sold in huge numbers and became the must have product. Various new iPods have been released since, all shifting huge volumes and therein likes Apple's current dilemma.

One one hand Apple wants to be seen as the maker of expensive, powerful high-end computers for the more affluent, discerning customer, but at the same time say 'Apple' to the average consumer and they think of the iPod, and not necessarily favourably.

The iPod originally was the aspirational MP3 player but no longer. iPod has given Apple around 75% of the MP3 market compared to around 7% it has of the personal computer market and market leadership does not come without problems as Apple has discovered.

Reliability problems, poor battery life and a sheer proliferation of devices have seen the perception of iPods fall dramatically. There have been a number of anti-iPod website set up and online forums and discussion boards are full of comments from people saying how poor the iPod is.

At the same time competing devices from Sony and Creative have proved to be technically, if not aesthetically, superior products.

Like Burberry, iPods have become chav products and chavs don't buy Apple computers full stop.

If there is such a thing as a schizophrenic brand then Apple is them.

The blog has a nice people feel with photos of the brand marketing team, and it avoids corporate speak. It aims to provide a forum where the team can talk with fans of the black stuff.

Guinnessblog: 'lets the GUINNESS brand team ask you what you think about various things. It lets you post comments telling us what you think about GUINNESS It lets you ask GUINNESS questions (and the most often asked ones will get answered).'

The blog is written by the marketing team and the crunch question has to be: will they keep it up? When companies have good new ideas there is usually a burst of enthusiasm, but then participation falls away as the demands of daily work get in the way.

Let's hope it provides a lifetime of sensible drinking rather than a quick pint.