Best Blogs, Leading Bloggers of 2004

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the most powerful group of bloggers of all? Why, they're contained in Tuesday's No. 31 top BlogPulselink: the Alpha Bloggers profiled by Newsweek and featured at MSNBC's web site.

In a related vein, the Weblog 2004 Awards winners have been anounced, and among the leading blogs (tallied from 366,187 votes) are Powerline (best blog), KerrySpot (best new blog), Engadget (best tech blog) and many others.

On the political agenda, the guy who was going to give the President the opportunity to use the phrase "9/11" another 4 billion times in the next four years -- now-withdrawn Homeland Security Nominee Bernard Kerik -- apparently had more than an under-the-table immigrant nanny in his past. Today's BlogPulse includes links to news of his alleged extramarial affairs, unreported cash gifts and ties to a Taser gun company, among others. At least one blogger, Tom Burka, can find humor in the entire un-investigated nomination.

Out in the land of "let's search the Internet," Google is attracting attention again for its new Google Suggest function, which offers a drop-down box of suggestions as soon as you begin typing phrases into its search box. Very cool. MSN's Toolbar Beta is also getting traction among bloggers.

And for anyone with a holiday artsy-craftsy streak, don't miss the Make a Flake web site, where virtual scissors interact with prefolded virtual paper to help you create a one-of-a-kind virtual snowflake to post, download or e-mail to friends.

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Is anyone in the sports world still discussing steroid use among pro athletes?