"Corporations are just now recognizing the power of what we call consumer-generated media, like blogs," William J. Comcowich, president and CEO of CyberAlert, said. "They've been monitoring traditional mediums, like TV and radio, for years."

CyberAlert has about 750 existing clients, according to Comcowich, ranging from small nonprofits to Fortune 100's who rely on CyberAlert's findings largely for public relations and marketing purposes. Simply listening in on Web chatter helps companies gauge the health of their reputations and determine how consumers are responding to certain brands.

BlogSquirrel monitors certain blogs based on algorithms that rank the number of times a blog is mentioned by other blogs. "The theory is that bloggers know what other blogs are good and which aren't worth their time," explained Comcowich.