BuzzLogic's technology analyzes some 12 million sites, Crumpler says. The technology aims to identify the blogs that provide the starting points for a popular conversation and those that are most influential.

Crumpler describes, for example, a campaign for the science-fiction television show Battlestar Galactica that BuzzLogic took on for the New York ad agency 360i to promote the show's season premiere last January. BuzzLogic used its ad technology to identify conversations about other science-fiction franchises, such as Star Trek, and conversations about the actors appearing in Battlestar Galactica. The company also looked for conversations among fans of the show by looking for frequent use of words such as "cylon." Crumpler says that 360i reported almost double the response that it had gotten using previous advertising technologies.

BuzzLogic is not the only network to tout the value of targeted advertising through blogs, however. Henry Copeland, founder and CEO of BlogAds, a social-media advertising network founded in 2002, says that his company gives advertisers "a great opportunity to hit various targets, because very often particular blogs have a strongly skewed readership." Copeland adds that "buying on blogs takes the 'targeting' up a level, because not only are you buying a bundle of humans, you're buying a community--a bunch of folks who not only think alike but are self-aware and often will react to something in concert."

Marissa Gluck, founder and managing partner of the Los Angeles-based consulting firm Radar Research, says that a tool focused on targeting particular conversations and interests addresses a current hole in the market. "Every marketer is interested in using social media but has no idea how to measure it," she says.

Gluck warns, however, that such a dashboard would be easy for Google to develop for itself or buy should the current online-advertising giant perceive BuzzLogic's approach as an important way to target ads.