Term of the Moment
cyberbully
Definition: blog
(1) To write and post an entry in a Weblog.
(2) (WeBLOG) A website that contains text entries in reverse chronological order (most recent entry first). Originating in the late 1990s, blogs cover everything from the latest news to personal journals to "ranting and raving."
More Personal but Also Corporate
Informality and off-the-cuff opinion are what set blogs apart. The blog is often a passionate expression of an individual's thoughts, and blogs are expected to be truthful. Although ads were traditionally absent, they now appear regularly.
Blog Software and Services
The first blogs were manually coded in HTML and uploaded to a Web server. However, when applications such as Pitas, Blogger and GrokSoup were launched in 1999, blogs took off. This template-based software made it a snap to publish a blog on the company's Web server and add entries without knowing HTML code (see blog publishing software). Soon after, blog hosting services came along allowing anyone to set up a free blog on the Web in minutes. See blog service, blog network, live blogging, anonymous blog, blog ping, spider, splog, blogroll, blogvertising, blognosing, blogorrhea, blogger, War blog, cyberactivism and dooced.
From Blogs to Microblogs and Social Networks
The blog spawned the "microblog," a short blog with a limit to the amount of text each post can contain. The most successful microblog was Twitter, later renamed X (see social media and Twitter).
Geek Humor
(2) (WeBLOG) A website that contains text entries in reverse chronological order (most recent entry first). Originating in the late 1990s, blogs cover everything from the latest news to personal journals to "ranting and raving."
More Personal but Also Corporate
Informality and off-the-cuff opinion are what set blogs apart. The blog is often a passionate expression of an individual's thoughts, and blogs are expected to be truthful. Although ads were traditionally absent, they now appear regularly.
Blog Software and Services
The first blogs were manually coded in HTML and uploaded to a Web server. However, when applications such as Pitas, Blogger and GrokSoup were launched in 1999, blogs took off. This template-based software made it a snap to publish a blog on the company's Web server and add entries without knowing HTML code (see blog publishing software). Soon after, blog hosting services came along allowing anyone to set up a free blog on the Web in minutes. See blog service, blog network, live blogging, anonymous blog, blog ping, spider, splog, blogroll, blogvertising, blognosing, blogorrhea, blogger, War blog, cyberactivism and dooced.
From Blogs to Microblogs and Social Networks
The blog spawned the "microblog," a short blog with a limit to the amount of text each post can contain. The most successful microblog was Twitter, later renamed X (see social media and Twitter).
From "The Best of The Joy of Tech" cartoon book by Nitrozac and Snaggy (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 2003). (Image courtesy of GeekCulture.)