RSS Feeds: Hey! What's a blog?
I just pulled up the definitions of "blog" from Dictionary.com. Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English defines it as "an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called [Weblog], [Web log]."
Okay, but is that all it really is, a collection of thoughts? I remember seeing some of the first weblogs. They were pretty simple web pages without any interaction at all, nothing more than online journals on standard pages. Some of them chronicled personal things while others chronicled the evolution of certain software applications. All of a sudden, and I don't know when, the "blogosphere" exploded into being when blog-specific software and services were created.
I think blogs have turned into a lot of different things and I don't think they're limited to any single scope. Some blogs specialize, some are professional, and some are incredibly personal. Some are a mixture of things, like mine. All of them have one thing in common: Interactivity. Even the ones that have commenting turned off are interactive in some way, even if the interactivity is severely limited.
In recent months, some blogs have gotten so far out of hand in the way they're being handled that certain entities want to craft a standards of conduct. It won't work because there won't be enough agreement between enough bloggers to make a difference. It doesn't matter — I think readership is the decisive factor at the end of the day.
The last I checked, Technorati stated there were over 70 million blogs out there. I wonder how many of them are actually active. I've come across a few that haven't been updated in more than a year. Wouldn't you consider those abandoned and remove them from your numbers? I know they haven't been removed from the numbers because one of them I had marked as a Technorati favorite by mistake.
What are some blog objectives? Do you want your blog to be popular? Do you want to make a lot of money? Perhaps you want both. I know that both popularity and profitability can go hand in hand because I see it being done by a whole lot of people. Perhaps you really do just want to share your thoughts.
So, what the heck is a blog anyway? Why, it's anything you want it to be.
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I have two blogs. One I update regularly. The other I update about twice a month. They both have the same purpose to me. It is simply a place for me to prattle my opinions, concerns, angers, and joys on.. If someone wants to comment on it I really don't care. If people agree or disagree with what I have to say that's nice but ultimately it doesn't matter. I simply state my thoughts at the moment which for all I know could change within that day or the next or never change.
When I first started my blog & registered with Technorati, it was ranked number 1,600,000 something; so if there are 70,000,000 them most of them are not registered with Technorati.
That definition of a blog definitely must be updated.
A blog is a website that is updated regularly and content appears in reverse chronological order.
I've seen too many types of blogs to give any more specific definition than this one, actually :)
I'm with Hari on this one – let's go with the technical definition :-)
When Blogging started, I didn't understand what it is all about. But now I can see the power of it. It is about people sharing their experience, feelings, beliefs, skills, knowledge. It is about sharing and community. I fell that Blogging took the Internet to the next level.