The Bear is the coolest, always pushing, prodding and making the blogosphere a better and more interesting place. His Blog Ecosystem was the first of its kind, lighting the way for the many blog indexes that have followed.

I remember his first Ecosystem, there were about 200 blogs and I was proud we were in the top 10%. Now he has about 2400 listed and we're in the top 2%, but I'm jaded. Because there are such a vast number of blogs now, it has become more difficult than ever to draw attention to yourself. One way is to join a group blog like Blogcritics and post regularly, the Bear has just created another:

One of the criticisms (of the many) that has been leveled at the Ecosystem over time is that it tends to draw attention to exactly those bloggers who don't need it --- the ones who are already at the "top of the heap".

In the spirit of counterbalancing that tendency, I'm happy to announce a new feature of the Ecosystem. I call it Microbes on Parade: The New Weblog Showcase.

The Showcase is a weekly contest which provides a forum for new bloggers to highlight their best work. The goal is to create a spot where new bloggers can have a chance to show off and get some wide exposure, and where established bloggers and blog-readers can come to find fresh new voices.

The contest will run weekly, beginning on Monday. From Monday through Sunday, bloggers can submit their weblogs and a sample post to be displayed on the main Showcase page. Other bloggers can then read the submitted posts, and, if they find them worthy, can "vote" by linking to the posts they like on their own blogs (just as they would with any other item they find of interest). Each morning, the daily Ecosystem scan counts how many links each submitted post has received and updates the Showcase page's statistics. At the end of the week, a final count is taken and whatever blog has the most links to its sample post, wins!

The winning blogger will get their weblog put at the very top of the main ecosystem listing for the week following their victory (yes, even above Glenn!), and will subsequently be added to a running list of past winners on the main Showcase page.

More information can be found on the Showcase FAQ page. For this week's contest, you must have started your weblog less than three months ago to be eligible. So if that describes you, go sign up!

And if you are an established blogger, I hope you'll check back to see what the newbies are up to, and give a little link-love to those you find worthy.

Let the parade of microbes begin!