What is a Blog or Weblog - Essay Example

What is a Blog or Weblog? The word “Weblog” was first used by Jorn Barger, during Decemeber, 1997 to describe his collection of links logged from theinternet (Wortham, 2007). The shorter version, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz (The History of Blog, 2005). Blogs are created by individuals for open communication and sharing information, pictures, and videos between each other. Among the various definitions provided by various websites, the one provided by wikipedia.org is worth mentioning which states that, “A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary.” (Blog, n.d.). A person who contributes in the blogs is referred to as a “Blogger” and collective community of all blogs is referred to as “Blogosphere” (Blog, n.d.). A blog is an amalgamation of text, pictures, videos, hyperlinks and flash objects. An important factor of any blog is that it allows its users to comment on the topics. Ads may also be found on these blogs which are source of earning. These ads are mostly provided by Google Adsense which then pays the owner for every valid click. There are also many blog search engine available online for searching blogs by keywords. Among these search engines, some popular names are Technorati, Bloglines and BlogScope. Evolution & Origin of Blog As we know, need is the mother of invention, so let’s connect, the invention of blogging with this sentence. I believe that blogging was evolved after people faced the need of more open and quick communication. Web blogs were not popular before 1999. During the beginning of 1999, there were only about 23 blogs according to the list of camworld.com. His owner, Cameron Barrett, used to add the URL of every new blog. By the time, the numbers of blogs increased to an extent that it became difficult for him to keep the record of all the weblogs so he started adding only those which he followed himself (Blood, 2000). Weblog boosted with the introduction of free build-your-own-weblog tools during August of 1999. Pitas.com was the first website to offer this facility followed by pyra.com, blogger.com and numerous others. These services enabled users to establish their own weblogs free of cost without any headache of using complicated html codes. Before these services, there was no any option except to create weblogs in link-driven sites for which, html coding is mandatory requirement. With the establishment of these free and easy to create weblogs tools, there was a gigantic increase in the number of bloggers. The world of weblog was revolutionized. Here, I feel necessary, to mention the words of John Tahan, a webmaster and internet marketer, “Blogs have changed the way academics do research, journalists write, families connect and politicians fundraise.” (Tahan, 2009) How to Create a Weblog? There are many ways to create a weblog. The simplest method is to take the advantages of free hosting services such as blogspot.com or blogger.com. Different kinds of templates are provided and having your own server is not required. Moreover, these services are free of cost. However, there are certain disadvantages of these free blogs. For example, your blog space will be partly covered with advertisement and there would not be much customization option. These drawbacks can be overcome by paying a very small fee of about $50 a year. Another way is to buy software programs such as Radio Userland. These softwares are available for small amount as low as $39 and works with most of the operating systems. They have their own servers and users are provided with 40 MB of space which may also be increased by paying a little more amount. Trial versions are also available. Trial version of Radio Userland can be downloaded from radio.userland.com (Biersdorfer, 2002). Another way is to simply create your own web server. It is the most complicated process for which the knowledge of certain programming is requires such as html, java etc. It is also the most costly method. These kinds of blogs are mostly maintained by corporate and businesses. One may also create a blog in social networking sites such facebook.com, twitter.com and orkut.com. Creating blogs in these websites is quite a new trend and thriving to a great extent. Purposes of Blogs Blogs are being used for marketing purposes and creating brand awareness. It is considered to be the easiest way to promote ones self and ones business at the same time allowing open communication. (Rufle, 2008) They are used by the writers, journalist, doctors, entrepreneurs and other people, related to different kinds of professions, to expand their circle of network and personal relationship. Companies use them in order to better understand their customer by having the feedbacks of customers so that they may shape their products or services accordingly. They are being used as a platform to express one’s personal experiences and to share them with others in order to get feedbacks. As well, family members remain in constant touch with one and another. One of the most suitable examples here is facebook which has revolutionized the world. Blogs are being used for educational purposes. We have blogs for almost every subject on internet. Moreover, teachers create blogs for student where they upload the notes and other important files which were taught during class. There also go questions and answers with the teachers. Examples include http://stevensdl.motime.com/ and http://explorelearning.blogs.com/blog/ They are used for openly expressing views about political situations. Blogs are also used for earning money. For some, it is infect the only purpose. Money can be earned by putting advertisement on blogs. Political leaders are using it to introduce their agendas to the general public. An example was the political campaign of Mr. Obama. He created a page in twitter and constantly updated. These were just few of the purposes of blogs. They may be in hundreds and with the passage of time, they are increasing. Forms of Blogs We may distribute blog in 10 different kinds which includes political blogs, personal blogs, business blogs, topical blogs, literary blogs, travel blogs, research blogs, legal blogs and educational blogs (The Different Kinds of Blogs, 2007). Let’s describe all of these kinds briefly: Political Blogs In these blogs, users comments about national and international political situations. The source of their news is often mainstream media news. Users often provide link of the news and comment about it or directly discuss issues by writing big essays. For example, http://obamabarack.blogspot.com According to a research conducted by Professor Richard Davis, a political scientist from Brigham Young University, “people who closely follow both political blogs and traditional news media tend to believe the content on blogs is more accurate.” He said that blog users suspect that they only get the one side of the news from mainstream media. (Davis, 2009) It is also seemed that bloggers are prosecuted for their act of negating government. The users of such blogs are often threatened by influential people. Moreover, political blogs also helped Mr. Barrack Obama or Mr. McCain to familiarize their objectives with general public. Personal Blogs It is the oldest and commonest type of blog. In these blogs, users write about their day to day experience and let other comment about it. It is seemed that even if nobody else read there blogs, they themselves read it and feel pleasure. They may also be termed as “online diary”. One of the kinds of personal blogging is “microblogging” where the blogger provides very detailed information about nearly every moment. (Blog, n.d.) Business Blogs/ Corporate Blogs These kinds of blogs may be created for promoting business or enhancing the line of communication within the internal employees of the company or it may also be used to increase personal relations with third parties. These blogs also contain necessary information about the company. Environment here in corporate blogs is a little personal where mostly the insight news and events of the business are disclosed. An example may be Google’s blog viewable at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ Health Blogs In these blogs, issues regarding medical treatment and health are discussed. There are some in which users discuss about their personal experiences regarding health issues and discuss with like minded people. There are as well some health blogs where professional consultant provides answers to the problems of there users. An example may be Children’s Health Blog viewable at http://www.childrenshealthblog.com/ Literary Blogs Also known as “Litblog”, it is a kind of blog where literature, such as works of fiction, poetries, short stories, novels, books, journal etc is discussed. Users demonstrate there interest by praising their favorite authors, poet etc as well as they create their own literary works and let other users to comment. An example may be Writer’s Block viewable at http://writersgroupblog.wordpress.com/ Travelers Blog Users discuss about there tours in different places of the world just as like the famous explorers used to do in writings. Blogs have computerized this trend. Legal Blogs These are also known as “blawgs”, here users discus about legal matters. An example is the blog maintained by Gary Becker & Richard Posner which is viewable at http://www.becker-posner-blog.com Educational Blogs Blogs proved very beneficial for the students and the teachers. These are the blogs where teachers and their students interact with each other and shares information and maintain the records of what is taught during class. Teachers provide the slides and other notes to the student by directly uploading the file. Student may ask there teachers about any matter and ay also discuss topics besides class timing. Yahoo Group is mostly preferred for creating an educational blog. Not only this, but teachers and students from all over the world may interact with each other and create an environment of learning. Example would be Dave’s Educational Blog viewable at http://davecormier.com/edblog/ Advantages and Disadvantages of Blogs Advantages 1. It provides freedom of speech. One may speak whatever he likes to say. Blogs are not filtered by state or government. Freedom of speech is on of the main factor of freedom. Due to this, everyone gets chance to express feelings about any topic intended to discuss about. 2. Due to the freedom of speech, people may receive bulk of information about even controversial topics. Then by analyzing these, they may know the truths. 3. Blogs helps businesses and individuals to expand networking circles. It provides chances to meet new people and new customer to businesses. Businesses may also find suitable employees and employees may find there intended employers. 4. Some people believed that blogs increases the credibility of any person when the quality of his thoughts are judged others. 5. With the popularity of blogs, people are able to know about the personal experiences of other people. For example, if I want to buy an Acer laptop e-machine series and it would be my first experience with this series of Laptop and I want to know the experiences of other people. So I can know the experiences of other by searching any IT blogs. Disadvantages 1. One of the disadvantages for corporation is that any one may come and comment which may also be negative comments. 2. Blogs are easily created and thus, there are hundreds of thousands of blogs online which may result in the circulation of false information. The greater the modes of communication, the greater are the chance of uncontrolled and false communication. So everyone under the sun is writing something in his blog which may be not true. Thus, increasing the amount of false information. 3. Blogs need to be constantly updated and any failure to do so will result in loss of readership. 4. There have been several cases where workers are fired from the company after sharing sensitive information about the company including that of Mark Jen who was terminated by Google for the reason that he discussed corporate secrets on his personal blog (Hansen, 2005) 5. Propagandas may be easily circulated through blogs. References Biersdorfer, J.D. (2002) Setting Up a Weblog, 25July, [Online], Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/25/technology/q-a-your-world-online-setting-up-a-weblog.html?scp=7&sq=weblog&st=cse . Blood, R. (2000) Weblogs: A History & Perspective, 7September, [Online], Available: http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html . Davis, R. (2009) Political Blogs More Accurate than Newspapers, 13May, [Online], Available: http://byunews.byu.edu/archive09-May-blogs.aspx . Hansen, E. (2005) Google Blogger Has Left The Building, 8February, [Online], Available: http://news.cnet.com/Google-blogger-has-left-the-building/2100-1038_3-5567863.html . Rufle, L. (2008) Understanding Blogging Backlash, 9October, [Online], Available: http://blogs.suite101.com/article.cfm/examining_the_trend_of_hostile_comments . Tahan, J. (2009) Origin Of Blog, 7 July, [Online], Available: http://www.articlesbase.com/blogging-articles/origin-of-blog-1020000.html . The Different Kinds of Blogs (2007), November, [Online], Available: http://www.slais.ubc.ca/COURSES/libr500/05-06-wt1/www/A_Cho/kinds.htm [16 Aug 2009]. The History of Blog (2005), November, [Online], Available: http://www.slais.ubc.ca/COURSES/libr500/05-06-wt1/www/A_Cho/history.htm . Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia, [Online], Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog [16 August 2009]. Wortham, J. (2007) After 10 Years of Blogs, the Futures Brighter Than Ever, 17 December, [Online], Available: http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/12/blog_anniversary . Read More