Business blogs up and coming--at last

It's been a long time I've been talking about how valuable blogs are as part of your PR and promotional efforts. At last, it seems, the truth is penetrating. Here's an analysis of a recent HP study that says 10% of small businesses are planning to include blogs in their marketing plans.

Talks about gender differences (more women than men are planning the business blogs, while men supposedly dominate the regular blogworld) and makes some excellent recommendations to blogging software creators about what features ought to be included in releases designed for businesses:

• ability to set up categories and excellent built-in search functions, so that business information can be found more easily -- chronological archiving is better for personal diaries and not very useful for business blogs
• features that are more like commercial websites, including "About Us" sections, press room pages, and better navigation functionality
• easy ability to build customized RSS feeds for individual pages such as press rooms
• search engines that target business blogs specifically
• plug and play integration of eCommerce features such as product catalogs and shopping carts on sidebars

Thanks to Anita Campbell for this excellent list. Now, Google, when can we expect these things?!