Search Engine Watch (SEW) certainly isn’t the first to do it, but the popular Web site’s adoption of a blog as a means of communicating current news could easily make this use of blogs more evident to others.

MediaMap was the first to do it (at least the first I was aware of), using a blog to post updates about media moves as soon as they happened. This was a terrific innovation, but wasn’t seen by many people. The audience for the kind of news MediaMap had to offer was small. (Bacon’s has since acquired MediaMap and maintains the blog.)

SEW has a larger audience and its move will be noticed. It could become clear to many organizations trying to funnel news onto their home pages that there’s an easier and more effective way. Ultimately, even Fortune 500 companies could begin using blogs as the channel for keeping constituencies informed.

“The blog isn’t going to replace what Search Engine Watch already does.,” writes SEW Editor Danny Sullivan. “Instead, it’s going to let us better publish some items that may not come to your attention.”

I’ve been among the 130,000 people who receive the monthly SEW newsletter which, Sullivan notes, is blog-like in its execution, offering news and analysis. Sullivan lists the limitations of the format, though: It takes a month for the news to get to the audience, it’s hard to reference an item readers may want to share with colleagues, and the mixture of items all together can cause readers to overlook one or two.

Sullivan explains, “Blogging solves these problems. It’s easier in my view to blog a news tidbit and not feel compelled to dive into an entire article about the subject. The format and style of blogging also lends itself to more informal reviews of topics and provides a more personal tone than a regular article allows. Permalinks are automatically created. Items can easily exist on their own.”