What is a Blog?
There are a number of ways to answer what-blog-really-is-question ranging from the broad to the highly technical.
Here are a few definitions from other much wiser people to get us started:
1. [ from Harvard Law Blog ]
“ A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an html browser. “
2. [ from MarketingTerms.com ]
“ A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. “
3. [ from ComputersPrintersRepairsHouston.com ]
“ From ‘web-log’. A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is ‘blogging’ and someone who keeps a blog is a ‘blogger’. “
4. [ from Newhome.Weblogs.com ]
“ A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide who you get to know. There are many guides to choose from, each develops an audience, and there’s also comraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs, they point to each other, in all kinds of structures, graphs, loops, etc. “
5. [ from Mattise.net ]
“ A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is ‘blogging’ and someone who keeps a blog is a ‘blogger’. Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in cronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominantly. “
6. [ from Wikipedia.org ]
“ 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. “
So, what is a Blog ??
Don’t be confused. Let’s make it as simple as possible:
“ a Blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom. “
This website you’re visiting right now is a Blog, and you are reading a blog post or a blog entry. I’ve made few tweaks on the main page though, so as you can see the main page is not only showing the latest post or entry, but also showing the latest post of some categories in few different section. For comparison, see here and here. Those blog’s main page are arranged in chronological order from the latest post or entry.
Blogs are usually - but not always - written by one person and are updated pretty regularly. Blogs are often - but not always - written on a particular topic - there are blogs on virtually any topic you can think of. From photography to recipes, from personal diaries to hobbies - blogging has as many applications and varieties as you can imagine. Whole blog communities have sprung up around some of these topics putting people into contact with each other in relationships where they can learn, share ideas, make friends with and even do business with people with similar interests from around the world.
Blogs usually have a few features that are useful to know about if you want to get the most out of them as a reader. Let’s get some of them to the list.
1. Archive
You might look at the main page of a blog, and see or think that there is not much to them. Just a few recent posts, some links to other blogs and that’s all. But the truth is there’s a lot more going on under the main page that might initially meet the eye.
When a blogger write a post, it goes to the top of the front page. As it gets older and as the blogger add more current posts, it moves down the page until it disappears from it. But that doesn’t mean it’s gone forever, because it goes into the ‘Archives’ of the blog. Let’s just say the ‘Archives’ is like a filing cabinet, that is easily accessible in a couple of ways. Readers can simply go the ‘archives’ section or ‘categories’ section (usually in the sidebar–on the left or right of the blog). There we will see links to all the old posts.
2. Comments
Not all blogs use comments - but most do. Most blogs are made to be a conversation instead of monologue. Readers can give the blogger feedback on almost every post, simply by clicking the ‘comments’ link at the bottom of each posts. This will take you to a little form where you leave your name, email and a link to your own blog if you have one as well as your feedback, comment, critique, question, etc. Try it now. Scroll to the bottom of this page, and fill in the blanks with a little introduction to yourself.
A great way to learn about blogs is to read a few. Leave some comments, ask questions and bookmark your favourites. An even better way to learn about blogs is to start your own.
I start my own with zero knowledge on blogging. It all start when i discovered a blog, surf from one to another (blogs tend to link up to other blogs alot) for a few hours, and i was hooked and wanted to build my own blog rightaway. I found I found that there’s alot of free blog services that almost anyone could set up in just few simple steps. Really it is that simple. Literally millions of people blog from around the world. Its not just something for young people, or geeks, or cool folk, or even for people with their own computers - instead its something virtually anyone with access to a computer and the internet once or twice a week can start up.
If you need more help or info, just do a search on your favorite search engine, or you can check this Introduction to Blogging article.
And finally, here’s a video explores the question of what is a blog in a visual form that I’m sure many of you will find helpful.
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