The term ‘blog’ is a short form of ‘weblog’ which is a website that is maintained by a person who uploads commentaries, graphics, videos and descriptions of events.  Every entry is showcased in reverse-chronological order.  Most blogs contain images, text and other blog links.  It offers news or a commentary on a particular topic whether it is personal or business oriented.  Readers have the option of leaving their comments.  Blogs have evolved to other forms such as artlogs, photoblogs, vlogs, sketchblogs, podcasting and MP3blogs.

Define Blog History

Blogs are one of the earliest forms of social media, starting around 1994.  The term ‘weblog’ was created by Jorn Barger in 1997.  It was later called ‘blog’ by Peter Merholz in May, 1999.  Evan Williams used the term as a verb and a noun at Pyra Labs where the term ‘blogger’ also originated.  One of the world’s oldest running blogs is Dave Winer’s Scripting News.  Today, blogs are being used for nearly every level of political campaigns, including presidential campaigns, as politicians see this as a way of bonding with constituents.

Personal Blogs

A personal online diary is the best way to define blog when it is being done by one individual.  It gives the blogger an opportunity to air his or her views on different aspects of life.  Today, we have microblogging with sites such as Twitter where short posts are uploaded to capture the latest information.

Corporate Blogs

Corporate blogs are used in companies to improve internal communication.  It can also be used for branding, marketing and public relations.

Topic Based Blogs

You can also define blog as it is based on different specific categories.  Most blogs concentrate on a particular topic.  This is why you will find blogs relating to different areas such as politics, travel, fashion, education, classical music, art, family, home improvement etc.  A blog used only for spamming is called a Splog.
 
Blog Technology

A blog can be written using different devices.  This is another way to define blog.  A moblog uses a mobile device or a PDA.  Semi-automated blogging is also possible and it is called sousveillance as it combines text with live video.

The Blogosphere

This refers to the collection of all the blogs out on the Internet.  Many blogs are interconnected through comments, linkbacks, backlinks and blogrolls.  Both the media and corporate firms use the blogosphere to gauge public opinion on different matters.  Since the blog world is so large, blog search engines are commonly used to find blog content.  Some examples of these include Technorati, BlogScope and Bloglines.