Michael Arrington has a tremendous effect on the popularity of new web companies from features on his blog TechCrunch.

The blog is getting to be such a staple of Web2.0 that he’s streamlining the process with a new Web 2.0 product submission form.

Even when Arrington posts a slam on a company, like the Ning RIP post that he did a while back, it can turn out to be a big publicity boost.

(Alexa)

I guess what they say is true, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” :)