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What is a Blog?

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Blogs: Find a Blog to Read or Create Your Own

Think of the Internet as your personal publishing house. On it you can choose from a million self-published journals and diaries known as blogs, and keep current on all the topics that interest you, as well as create your own blog, adding your voice to the buzz of the blogosphere.

What is a Blog?

Blogs began as simple online diaries, updated regularly with new "posts" appearing at the top of the Web site. Despite the numerous mutations they've undergone since then, and the many new uses people have found for them, they've retained this simple structure. Having become "blogs" in 1997, when Web and log were combined and the first two letters unceremoniously chopped off, this unassuming type of site has subsumed a large portion of the Internet, with 76 million blogs worldwide and counting. Arguably the most free form of publication in history, the "blogosphere" is enormous, eclectic, and boundless. Enjoy.

Dulcinea's Insight

  • Video blogs, known as vlogs, have become massively popular and more widespread with the advent of cheap and easy-to-use Web cameras and software. Vlogs, like blogs, run the gamut in terms of topic and form, with interviews, music vlogs, mini-shows, and more.

Dulcinea's Picks

The Weblog Project will bring you to videos of all sorts of people trying to answer the question "What is a blog?" The founders of this Web site are accepting any video submissions from bloggers on the subject, and then choosing a few to be the stars, all culminating in a free-use, open-source movie. Because the site features a large number of videos, it can be slow to load at times.
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PBS 's Learning Now project does a good job of explaining to a tech-unsavvy audience what a blog actually is. Though it targets education professionals, this blog post gives a concise history and introduction to the blogging phenomenon for any interested party.
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Guardian Unlimited brings you this article in which British writer and producer David Cox debates whether blogging is fundamentally different than journalism, and whether it should be.
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Evaluating Blog Credibility

Like all Web pages, blogs can range from extremely informative and high quality to mere low-budget ... read more »

Blog Directories and Blog Search Tools

No matter how obscure your interests, there's a good chance that there's a blog to fit your needs. ... read more »

Blog Feeds and News Aggregators

As you start surfing the blogosphere, you're bound to amass a growing collection of favorite blogs ... read more »

Starting a Blog

Blogging was designed to empower every Internet user, so it's natural that you might be wondering ... read more »

Blogging for Money

The more effort you spend on your blog, the more you might be thinking "I ought to get paid ... read more »

Community Links in Blogs

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