This one might qualify as a meta-blogger story. Web logger Mike Everett-Lane was obsessing the way every blogger does: checking his Blog site logs to see who was reading and referring to his online journal.

He discovered Liz maryland Hiraldo's Blog through a Blog network http://blogsnob.idya.net. He liked her design. He sent her a note telling her so.

After chatting via Instant Messaging and e-mail, they hatched an idea to build a map of New Yorker's blogs and teamed up with another Web design colleague of Liz's, Matt Johnson, to get it going. That was a couple of weeks ago.

By the time you read this, NYCBloggers.com will have probably hit or passed the 700 mark on New York blog links that are flying in from all over the city. Not bad for a site that just launched after Memorial Day.

Not only does the site break out blog links by borough (via subway maps), it also contains helpful resources for all kinds of New York obsessions: blogging, eating, getting around town, arts and entertainment.

atNewYork chatted with Web designer Hiraldo and Everett-Lane (who by day works for a non-profit group for the homeless, Project Renewal) about their little phenom and the meta-meaning of it all.

Q: How did you get the site launched?

(Mike) I did some surfing, discovered all kinds of sites and links to other NY bloggers, such as one on geography, one with all NYU students. We collected about 100 and sent out about 120 e-mails to launch it. From a direct marketing perspective, I'd say we had about a 400 percent reponse. It's gone crazy from there.

Q: How crazy?

(Liz) After Slate wrote about us we got these e-mails saying, 'wow, cool site. What's a blog?'

We were cool site of the day at National Review Online the day we launched. We had no idea we would have signed up 600-plus within a week of our launch.

(Mike) We were joking that for three people and a couple of hundred bucks (that we spent), this is more successful than a lot of dot-coms (we've) worked for.

Q: I noticed the past-tense in that comment. Would you agree that the growth of blogs is related to the dot-com shakeout, with so many folks with Web design skills out of work?

(Liz) I think people have always had ways of journaling since the (rise of the) Internet. It's a democratic way of stepping outside your life, and sharing it. My blog is about living my life out loud, at a time when I don't feel I have a lot of control. I'm saying "here I am."

(Mike) And there are so many different blogs out there (and on the map). The range -- from politics to music, to people just writing about their own lives. There's a guy writing about his dog, a porn star has one, I'm just looking at one now all about Cricket.

I think one of the interesting things about blogging, is that it's so easy to do this now (with self-publishing software). Before, you could write up one, and end up with a page that never got updated.

Q: What do you make of the growth in blogging? Do you see any connection to the post dot-com craze?

(Liz) Well, we had a number of people who created blogs after seeing the site. That's exciting. I think part of it is, yes, granted, there are more dot-commers out of work who basically decided to do something and began (online) journals. But I think this is part of the non-commercial Web that's always been there, from all the way to the beginning. This has been what (the Web) is all about.

I've always been a big information-collecting person. I did an e-mail newsletter about art, then started using a Web page to update it, or get info and articles. I think that's what we're about. Using it for information, how to, where to....

But then, September 11 rolled around. I remember my attitude that day, having been in the World Trade Center in 1993 when it was bombed. Then a friend IM-ed me and the next thing we knew, the towers fell. People wanted to say something. They wanted to continue talking about it. You can only tell the same story so many times to your friends before you exhaust them. But (people) would feel the need to keep talking, or write more about it.

Q: What about you Mike?

On the question about blogging's relationship to the Internet bubble, we joked on the site that if this was 1999, we would be seeking venture capital at this point and considering an IPO. I think people who brought a lot of money (into the Web) have stepped back and we're now seeing a lot of people who are just writing on the Internet.

My (blog) started out as a group thing. I wanted a way to say this a cool book, or you gotta check out this band. Then I thought there's gotta be a place for people to put their postings in there.

Then (post-Sept. 11) there was all this info to share, such as 'I'm OK,' or what happened, things we had read, latest news. People needed a way to share that with friends. A lot of us had to write about it.