] The coffee-houses that sprang up across Europe, starting
] around 1650, functioned as information exchanges for
] writers, politicians, businessmen and scientists. Like
] today's websites, weblogs and discussion boards,
] coffee-houses were lively and often unreliable sources of
] information that typically specialised in a particular
] topic or political viewpoint. They were outlets for a
] stream of newsletters, pamphlets, advertising free-sheets
] and broadsides. Depending on the interests of their
] customers, some coffee-houses displayed commodity prices,
] share prices and shipping lists, whereas others provided
] foreign newsletters filled with coffee-house gossip from
] abroad.

Economist.com | Coffee-houses