A good year for The Internets

2004 was the year that blogs reached critical mass (ABC News's "people of the year" - bloggers.) Bloggers fact-checked the "professional" media repeatedly, and banded together to provide information when the mainstream media was floundering, trying to get a handle on the tsunami story.

Hey, it looks like the Internets are really starting to catch on.

We've all become used to seeing URLs everywhere... in every kind of advertising from movie previews to product packaging.

Well, last night, a new milestone for me. Carrie and I were getting ready to toast the new year with a bottle of our favorite California bubbly (Domaine Carneros 2000 Brut Cuvée, made by Taittinger in the Carneros region of California, one of the finest Pinot Noir growing areas in the world. Great champagne and a total steal for the money, BTW.)

I peeled back the foil cap, removed the wire cage, and gently loosened the cork to produce an aesthetically pleasing "pop"... all très traditionnel...

Pop goes the vino.

...to find that the California winery's URL had been inked into the side of the cork.