The simplest explanation of a weblog (blog) is a personal, topical webpage that is frequently updated. Personal websites are not new, but what make blogs so powerful are their social nature, their organic, populist culture, and their immediacy. They have become so popular so quickly because very inexpensive, or even free online publishing services make it possible for anyone to publish on the web without having to learn any programming. At the time of this writing, approximately 5 million active blogs are being tracked by blog search engines.
Features of a Blog:
A set of common format features characterize blogs, setting them apart from a typical web page, although the author controls which of these features to make available on their own blog.
Posts: A single blog entry is called a post. Posts are usually short, conversational and are time stamped, displayed with the newest post on top. Blogs are normally organized around a particular topic, so grouped together posts become a reverse-chronology of thoughts, opinions, news, or shared experiences. Time-stamps impart both a sense of immediacy and reader-author connectedness. It also indicates the “freshness” of the content. Blogging etiquette strongly encourages hyperlinking within posts to companies, bloggers, information or articles referred to in the post.
Syndication/RSS: RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” This is often referred to as the “killer app” for blogs, as it allows readers to subscribe to an automatic “feed” of a blog, so that the entire post (or just its headline) is “pushed” to the subscriber as soon as a post is published to that blog. Subscribers receive post content through software integrated into their standard web browser or through a separate application called a “news reader” or “news aggregator.” Each RSS feed contains a link to the blog post on the subscribed blog. This same technology enables blog content to be distributed or aggregated onto web sites, much like a traditional syndicated news story is distributed to subscriber publications.
Comments: Each post invites readers to comment via a small web form immediately under the post. Comments are published immediately and automatically directly under the post, usually with the commentator’s name linked back to his or her own blog. Subsequent readers can read both the author’s posts and the opinions of any reader, as well as follow the link to the commentator’s blog. The author is notified when a comment is posted. The author may post a response comment as well, or post an additional blog entry – and thus the conversation becomes interconnected.
Trackbacks: Trackbacks extend the interconnectedness of blogs exponentially. Authors who allow trackbacks provide a method for another blogger to publish a post directly onto that author’s blog. A trackback is a link to the original author’s post, entered into the second author’s own blog post. When the second author publishes his or her post it is also published in the original author’s blog, directly beneath the referenced post. The original author is notified when a trackback is published. Trackbacks are interlinked to and from each blog, intertwining multiple blogs and conversations.
Permalinks: Each post, upon being published, is automatically given a “permalink” which is a permanent URL for that individual post. These are helpful because most bloggers keep 1 – 10 of their most recent posts on their blog “home page” and older blog entries are “archived” off the home page. Permalinks ensure the integrity of hyperlinks, as anyone can create a link to an individual post in any web page, blog or email, and it always remains accurate and unbroken. Permalinks also help get your posts noticed by search engines, since each post has a unique web address.
BlogRoll: Many blogs contain a list of other blogs the author reads and recommends, with links to each. Some bloggers also list books, publications, music or services they recommend.
Calendar: The calendar allows readers to browse through older posts by day, month or year.
Categories: By assigning a topic category to each post, readers can browse through posts by topic, rather than date.
Personal Information: Most bloggers have a link to their email address so that readers can contact them directly or privately. Many also publish a short profile or biography.
Why are Blogs Important?
Blogs are influential publications because of their sense of immediacy, their reader-author connectedness and their fast-growing readership.
Blogs are innately democratic, giving everyone a voice and an audience due to the ease of publishing ideas and opinions.
Blogs have removed the gatekeepers of traditional media. They challenge traditional journalism because of their speed, penetration and the powerful credibility built by blogs’ social network.
Blog readers have created influential voices through the populist and self-regulating nature of blogs. These influencers augment and challenge the power of traditional main stream media (MMS).
They are interlinked, turning the web into millions of global conversations.
Blogs spread information and ideas at unprecedented speed, literally in real-time.
Blogs have the capacity to humanize companies and create a sense of connection and approachability with customers, shareholders, employees, and media.
Blogs are a method of monitoring word of mouth references to your organization, products or services.
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