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What is Blog?

A blog (a contraction of the term

weblog

) is a type of website, usuallymaintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonlydisplayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb,meaning

to maintain or add content to a blog

.Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; othersfunction as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images,and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. Theability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an importantpart of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art(art log), photographs (photo log), sketches (sketch blog), videos (blog), music(MP3 blog), audio (pod casting), which are part of a wider network of socialmedia. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogswith very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati wastracking more than 112 million blogs. With the advent of video blogging, theword

blog

has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of mediawherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.

History

The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The shortform, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word

weblog

into the phrase

we blog

in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May1999.

Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a nounand verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog")and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product,leading to the popularization of the terms.

Origins

Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms,including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the earlyCompuServe, e-mail lists and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s,Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with"threads." Threads are topical connections between messages on ametaphorical "corkboard." The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep arunning account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselvesdiarists, journalists, or journalers. Justin Hall, who began personal blogging in1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest blogger, as is Jerry Pournelle. Dave Winer's Scripting News is alsocredited with being one of the oldest and longest running web blogs. Anotherearly blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person'spersonal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from awearable computer and Eye Tap device to a web site in 1994. This practice of

semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to assousveillance, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Web sites.However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of Web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing processfeasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted inthe distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today.For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typicalaspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services, orthey can be run using blog software, or on regular web hosting services.

Rise in popularity

After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog usage spreadduring 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools:



Open Diary launched in October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming thefirst blog community where readers could add comments to other writers'blog entries.



Brad Fitzpatrick, a well-known blogger started Live Journal in March 1999.



Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative tomaintaining a "news page" on a Web site, followed by Diary land inSeptember 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.



Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched blogger.com inAugust 1999 (purchased by Google in February 2003)Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role inbreaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw bloggers takingmeasured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-rightdivide of the political spectrum.

Types of Blog

There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way that content is delivered or written.

Personal blogs

The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, isthe traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride intheir blog posts, even if their blog is never read by anyone but them.Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become away to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimentalquality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but somepersonal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. A type of personalblog is referred to as "micro blogging," which is extremely detailedblogging as it seeks to capture a moment in time. A site, such as Twitter,allows bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously withfriends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or writing. This form

of social media lends to an online generation already too busy to keep intouch.

Corporate blogs

A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for businesspurposes. Blogs, either used internally to enhance the communication andculture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or publicrelations purposes are called corporate blogs.

Question blogging

Question blog is a type of blog that answers questions. Questions can besubmitted in the form of a submittal form, or through email or othermeans such as telephone or VOIP. Q logs can be used to display shownotes from podcasts

or the means of conveying information through theinternet. Many question logs use syndication such as RSS as a means of conveying answers to questions.

By media type

A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called alink log, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketch blog orone comprising photos is called a photo blog. Blogs with shorter posts andmixed media types are called tumblelogs. Blogs that are written ontypewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs; seetypecasting (blogging).A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog.

By device

Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. Ablog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could becalled a moblog. One early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, anonline shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, andpictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and Eye Tap device toa web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live videotogether with text was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals havebeen used as evidence in legal matters.

By genre

Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travelblogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, nicheblogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs or dreamblos. Two common types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blogfeaturing discussions especially about home and family is notuncommonly called a mom blog. While not a legitimate type of blog, oneused for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a S blog.

Community and cataloging