What is a blog?
Blog is a shortened version of weblog. Log is a frequently used terminology in computer lingo which means any file which stores the changes in a chronological order. Weblog is similarly a collection of articles/information/posts etc. arranged in a structured manner. The content posted on blogs may take any form, from a person’s personal opinion, public diaries to any collection of information. Blogs are generally maintained by individuals or a small group of people posting content regularly. Hence, blogs are also often called internet based journals. Another important feature of a blog is its interactive nature since almost all blogs allow people to post comments and discuss the post in question.
However, it should be born in mind that these are very loose and intuitive definitions of a blog. There have been a particular set of websites which have come to be called a blog and those websites, more often than not have above features in common. There is no recognized group which determines which site is a blog and which not.
A brief history of blogs
The earliest of blogs on the Internet can be traced back to Tim-Berners Lee, the father of the World Wide Web. During the earlier years of Internet, each new page on the WWW was met with a sense of excitement. Tim-Berners Lee introduced a “What’s new page” compiling a list of new websites on the Internet.
As the internet grew, more and more such sites came about, offering to filter the Internet and maintaining a database (log) of websites which they deemed fit. The term Weblog was coined by Jorn Barger in 1998.
Blogger and Pitas were the first sites to allow people to easily sign up and create their own posts even without the knowledge of HTML. This opened the world of Internet to common people who did not have expertise in web design and did not know the technicalities of buying domain names and web hosts. More and more people started blogging (a term now very commonly used for people who write blogs) and there soon grew a community of bloggers and blogs on almost every topic. Personal diaries and online journals are some of the most common themes on which blogs are created.
Today a number of websites allow users to post their blogs for free. They use content management softwares which save users all the trouble of learning HTML and other related technicalities.
Why do people blog?
- Desire to be heard:
Blogs have a universal reach. They open the window to an international audience without boundaries. People have opinions and the very thought of being read by people half way across the world is exciting. It’s about having a voice, putting down thoughts which would otherwise be lost.
- Connecting:
Bloggers’ community is one of the most enriching and vibrant communities in the online world. People discuss each others’ posts, raise questions, and discuss issues. All of this connects the person to whole new bunch of ideas and people.
- Personal satisfaction:
Penning down one’s opinion and thoughts on different issues can be one of the most satisfying experiences to some. There are several bloggers who simply write for the heck of it without even caring to promote their blog beyond their closed group.
- Making Money:
With the advent of Google adsense and several other ‘get paid to blog sites’, writing blogs to earn money is also a great motivation. Many people write blogs to review/criticize a product and get paid in return. People also get contextual ads on any types of posts they have using Google adsense. Of course, the quality of content and website traffic plays an important role in this regard.