Blog Basics

A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log . Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called "blogging". Individual articles on a blog are called "blog posts," "posts" or "entries". A person who posts these entries is called a "blogger". A blog comprises text, hypertext , images , and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other files). Blogs use a conversational style of documentation . Often blogs focus on a particular "area of interest", such as Washington, D.C.'s political goings-on. Some blogs discuss personal experiences.

Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services , or they can be run using blog software on regular web hosting services . In the early 21st Century, blogging has quickly emerged as a popular and important means of communication, affecting public opinion and mass media around the world.

How blogs differ from traditional sites

A blog has certain attributes that distinguish it from a standard web page. It allows for easy creation of new pages: new data is entered into a simple form (usually with the title, the category, and the body of the article) and then submitted. Automated templates take care of adding the article to the home page, creating the new full article page ( Permalink ), and adding the article to the appropriate date- or category-based archive. It allows for easy filtering of content for various presentations: by date, category, author, or other attributes. It usually allows the administrator to invite and add other authors, whose permission and access are easily managed.

Difference from forums or newsgroups

Blogs are different from forums or newsgroups . Only the author or authoring group can create new subjects for discussion on a blog. A network of blogs can function like a forum in that every entity in the blog network can create subjects of their choosing for others to discuss. Such networks require interlinking to function, so a group blog with multiple people holding posting rights is now becoming more common. Even where others post to a blog, the blog owners or editors will initiate and frame discussion, manipulating the situation to their specifications.

Digital media

While straight text and hyperlinks dominate, some blogs emphasize images (such as web comics and photoblogs ) and videos (see videoblogging ).

Some textual blogs link to audio files (see podcasting ). A notable niche is the MP3 blog , which specializes in posting music from specific genres. New words have been coined for many of these content-oriented blogs, such as " moblog " (for "mobile blog").

Types of blogs

Political

When discussed in the media, the term blog is often understood to refer to a political blog . Political blogs take different forms. Some link to news articles and post personal comments. Others write long essays about current political topics.

Noteworthy is the recent trend of political candidates to incorporate blogging in their campaigns. Some candidates do their own blogging, while others, such as US presidential candidates, assign blogging to campaign staff.

Personal

In common speech, the term blog is often used to describe an online diary or journal , such as LiveJournal . The blog format allows inexperienced computer users to make diary entries with ease. People blog poems , prose , illicit thoughts, complaints, daily experiences, and more, often allowing others to contribute. In 2001 , mainstream awareness of online diaries increased dramatically.

Online diaries are part of the daily lives of many teenagers and college students. Friends use blogs to communicate with each other.

Cultural

Cultural blogs discuss music, theater, other arts, and popular culture.

Cultural blogs are among the most read blogs.

Topical

Topical blogs focus on a niche. For example, the Google Blog covers nothing but news about Google.

A blog may fit more than one topical category or may be both topical and general. Blog directories must manage the needs of bloggers, who want to increase readership, and readers, who want relevant search results.

Local blogs are a type of topical blog. Neighborhood reporting is ideal for blogging: Locals are the best witnesses of local events.

Business

Main article: Business blog

The stock market is a popular subject of blogging. Both amateur and professional investors use blogs to share stock tips.

Business blogs are used to promote and defame businesses, to argue economic concepts, to disseminate information, and more.

Science

Scientists have mixed feelings about blogging: while some see it as an excellent new way to disseminate and discuss data, others fear that blogs (and other informal means of publication) could damage the credibility of science by bypassing the peer review system.

Moblog

A Moblog, or mobile blog, consists of content posted to the Internet from a mobile phone (i.e., cellular telephone ) or a personal digital assistant (PDA). Moblogs may require special software.

Collaborative

Many blogs are written by more than one person (often about a specific topic). Collaborative blogs can be open to everyone or limited to a group of people. MetaFilter is an example.

Slashdot , whose status as a blog has been debated, has a team of editors who approve and post links to technology news stories throughout the day. Although Slashdot does not refer to itself as a blog, it shares some characteristics with blogs.

Indymedia is an early (1999) example of a collaborative blog (although the term blog wasn't in circulation then). It was created to cover a specific event (the WTO in Seattle) but has since spread around the world.

Blogcritics has roots as a collaborative blog, but now styles itself an online magazine. The site has evolved since its inception in 2002 from an anything-goes group blog to a heavily edited media organization.

Eclectic

Eclectic blogs focus on specific (and unusual) niches and can be individually or collaboratively produced.

Educational

Students can use blogs to record what they learn and teachers can use blogs to record what they teach. For example, a teacher can blog a course - specifying what homework students are required to carry out, including links to Internet resources, and recording day-by-day what is taught. This application has many advantages: (1) a student can quickly catch-up if they miss a class; (2) the teacher can use the blog as a course plan; and (3) the blog serves as an accurate summary of the course that prospective students or new teachers can refer to. Blogging can also be used to record class excursions and to create electronic "scrapbooks" of student life.

Directory

Directory blogs provide regularly-updated links to topics of interest. Directory blogs are usually focused on a particular news topic.

Directory blogs are not "blog directories." Blog directories (and search engines used for blogging) have organization and automation, characteristics not typical of directory blogs.

Forum

An internet forum is not a blog (technically speaking), but a blog can function as an internet forum. Internet forums typically allow any user to post (into the discussion). Blogs typically limit posting to the blogger or to the blogger and approved others.

The distinction between blogs and forums is sometimes gray. Sites such as Slashdot , Indymedia and Daily Kos combine elements of the two. Business professionals use Content management systems to enable cooperation when making documents.

Spam

Spam blogs ( splogs ) are a form of high-pressure advertising. Like spam e-mails, splogs are characterized by bold lettering and outrageous claims. Affiliated splogs often link to each other to increase their Internet presence. (See PageRank .)

Common terms Blogging, like any human practice, has developed a specialized vocabulary . See List of blogging terms.

Blogging Search Engines

• LjFind Allows searching of over 4 million blogs on the livejournal blog platform
• Google Blog Search allows searching of multiple blog sites. Including Blogger, Live Journal and many others. http://www.google.com/blogsearch
• Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere. Currently tracking 26.7 million sites and 1.9 billion links.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia