A is for Advertising

A blog is very much like an online journal, but it can be authored by numerous people, or by just one individual. Each post is written on a website chronologically, but often appearing in reverse order. The term ‘blog’ or ‘blogging’ can also be used as a verb to mean an action - in other words, that of creating a comment on a blog.

The term ‘blog’ is derived from Jorn Barger’s term ‘weblog’ and is said to have sprung into being when Peter Merholz separated it into the two words ‘we blog’ on his site as a joke.

When many people communicate using a blog, they are likely discussing a specific topic of interest for them. Thus, if someone desires to know what’s the best blue widget to buy for his office, others will post with their comment on how that particular widget worked - or didn’t work. Blogs are perfect for discovering what other folk’s experiences have been with whatever you can imagine.

If someone is knowledgeable on some topic with plenty of experience that other people can benefit from, then he might start up a blog about it and offer advice. They might in addition offer links to other sites that promote products applicable to the area of competence. Also he may offer links to other articles or other blogs regarding the same subject.

Blogs utilize both images and text, even so, some blogs emphasize art (artblog), videos (vlog), photographs (photoblog) and audio, that is, podcasting or MP3. Blogs can be short or long, but those that are very short are referred to as micro-blogging. Blogs are usually updated several times a day and the technology utilized today allows people who understand very little about it to become confident bloggers with just a brief learning curve.

In the early days of blogging, bloggers called themselves diarists, journalers, or even escribitionists. A comment or article written on a blog is called a post, a blog post or an entry. Old blogs on a topic are occassionally referred to as ‘archives’ and may be kept on a another page or pages that can be accessed via a hyperlink. There are at times a variety of hyperlinks - like the index of a book and they are found on the left or right of the blogging page.

The nice thing about blogging is that persons who have the same interests can all join together and talk about, getting familiar with each other (so to speak) at the same time.