What is Blog?

If somebody thinks to do some creativity on internet with blog then one should know first what is blog, its meaning, usage and other related terms.

 What is Blog?

[N.]     Short for Web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.

[v.]    To maintain or add content to a blog.

Different author define "Blog" their own way. But i define it like:

A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. It gives the ability to a persone or group to interact with mass readers.

A blog is also like online diaries where people share their opinions, ramblings and personal events.

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.       --- blogger.com

 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.

Usage: 

Today blogs are being used for all sorts of purposes. You have companies that use blogs to communicate and interact with customers and other stake holders. Newspapers that incorporated blogs to their main website to offer a new channel for their writers. Individuals that created a blog to share with the world their expertise on specific topics. And so on.

Everyone's jumping on the blogging bandwagon. Blogs written by politicians, musicians, novelists, sports figures, newscasters and other notable figures have been spotted. Because of this, blogs have also been the center of controversy. Since one can write about anything in a blog, complaints about others are commonplace.

The features that make blogs different from other websites are:

• content is published in a chronological fashion
• content is updated regularly
• readers have the possibility to leave comments
• other blog authors can interact via trackbacks and pingbacks
• content is syndicated via RSS feeds

Terms related with blog:

Post:    Single item of a blog.

blogger:  A person who write blogs.

blogging: The act of writing or updating your blog.

blogosphere: Meaning all blogs, it is an expression used to describe the 'world of blogs'.

blogroll: Found on blogs it is a list of links to other blogs and Web sites that the blog author commonly references or is affiliated with. Blogrolls help blog authors to establish and build upon a their blogger community.

blogsnob: (1) A slang term used to describe a blogger who doesn't respond to blog comments left by people outside his or her own circle of blogger friends.
    (2) Written as BlogSnob, a free advertising exchange for blogs and personal sites.

b-blog: Short for business blog, a blog used by a business to promote itself.

klog: Short for knowledge blog, klog is a type of blog usually used as an internal / Intranet blog that is not accessible to the general public and that serves as a knowledge management system. The term klog is also being used to describe a blog that is technical content oriented.

moblog: Acronym used to combine the terms "mobile" and "Web log". Where a Web log (also called a blog) is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual, a moblog is a blog which has been posted to the Internet from a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA.

tagging: Commonly used in blogs, site authors attach keyword descriptions (called tags) to identify images or text within their site as a categories or topic. Web pages and blogs with identical tags can then be linked together allowing users to search for similar or related content. If the tags are made public, online pages that act as a Web-based bookmark service are able to index them. tags can be created using words, acronyms or numbers. Tags are also called tagging, blog tagging, folksonomies (short for folks and taxonomy), or social bookmarking.

Blog and Ping: An online marketing term applied to a system that utilizes blogs and pings (short for pingback) to deliver content and /or sites for indexing in search engines with the ultimate aim of profit. Also called blog ping.

vlog: Short for video blog, it is the term used to describe a blog that includes or consists of video clips. Typically updated daily (or with regular frequency) vlogs often reflect the personality or cause of the author. Also called vog.

Blogging service:

In the late 1990s blogging became very popular, and as a result multiple free blogging software and services have become available. Free services offer bloggers an easy to use browser interface to maintain and edit blogs. Users can freely join the following hosted blog services.

• AOL Hometown / AOL Journals (America Online, Inc.)  http://hometown.aol.com/
• Blog.com (Blog.com Inc.)                                                 http://www.blog.com/
• Blogger (Google)                                                                http://www.blogger.com/
• LiveJournal (Six Apart)                                                       http://www.livejournal.com/
• MySpace (News Corporation)                                           http://www.myspace.com/
• Open Diary (The Open Diary)                                           http://www.opendiary.com/
• Windows Live Spaces / MSN Spaces (Microsoft)           http://spaces.live.com/
• WordPress (Automattic, Inc.)                                           http://www.wordpress.com/
• Xanga (Xanga.com, Inc)                                                     http://www.xanga.com/
• Yahoo 360 Beta (Yahoo! Inc.)                                           http://360.yahoo.com/

Other Useful Links:

• rebecca's pocket: weblogs: a history and perspective   An overview of some major events that shaped the blogosphere.
• Google Blog Search   This Google search enables you to find blogs on your favorite topics.
• Yahoo Directory: Directory for Web logs   Web log (blog) related categories and pages from the Yahoo! directory.
• Blogging for Dollars: Giving Rise to the Professional Blogger       If we can demonstrate that these blogs are worth the cost it takes to maintain them, we will enable the creation of many more compelling, useful blogs.
• Build Community With Web Logs       Web Logs have been around for a while in the form of "link lists," but have really taken off recently as ways of creating community around the shared interests of the Blog's members. Sort of a cross between a bulletin board and a link list, Web Logs let people post commentary and web sites in a sort of shared portal-building/media creating frenzy.