If there has been a trend on the Internet that has remained intact ever since it took the fancy of netizens, it’s blogging. But in the multitude of blogs that dot the virtual world, finding substance is the idea behind a unique set of awards. The Indibloggies — India’s first blogging awards were instituted by city-based blogger Debashish Chakrabarty after years of blogging and some brainstorming.

In it’s fourth year now, Chakrabarty opines that, “When one gets into the habit of speaking one’s mind on the blogs, one also has to learn to digest others thoughts on the Internet. Apart from recognising true and consistent blogging talent, we also hope to bring to the fore some interesting blogs.”

While an award for blogging is not a foolproof method to brand a blog as the best, a heightened awareness level is what the awards are trying to achieve. “There are so many brilliant blogs that have constructive content but are not known to us bloggers. In fact, more than the final award winners itself, I would tout the list of nominees as the finest blogs on the Internet,” he says. Blogs also have the tendency to launch with a bang but they eventually die out in a matter of months due to lack of interest on the part of the bloggers. That’s where the quality of consistency plays an important role. “Quality is a determining factor, but all the same, the kind of comments that the blog receives and the regularity with which it is updated is also important for the awards,” notes Chakrabarty. Indibloggies has recognised the outstanding bloggers , for example Sonia Faleiro, whose blog was adjudged the Best Topical Blog last year and went on to win the CNN Young Journalist Award in 2006.

And if you thought blogging is not the place for serious writers, one look at sixteen different award categories could be a revelation. The categories consist of blogs on sports, science, entertainment, humanities, photography, food and many more.

Chakrabarty also notes the growing trend of regional language blogs that have been included in the award categories. “There is tremendous activity happening on regional language blogs. For instance, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Kannada lead the pack of vernacular blogs. We thought it necessary to recognise their contribution as well,” says Chakrabarty who works in a financial form in the city.

Currently busy with the nominations and then the final short-listing of the blogs, Chakrabarty says that the winners will be announced by February 22. A mind-blogging, agenda this!