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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."

Written by one person or a group of contributors, entries contain commentary, observations and opinions. They may include images, audio, video, links to other sites, as well as a search facility for finding past entries. By 2020, there were more than 400 million blogs in existence, created by using services such as Wordpress, Tumblr and Blogger. See audioblog, vlog, Blogger, Tumblr and Wordpress.

Blogs may invite comments and feedback similar to the Internet newsgroup discussions that started long before the Web (see newsgroup). Blogs often support RSS syndication, which notifies users when new blog entries are posted (see syndication feed).

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.

Companies may encourage employees to write internal blogs to share knowledge, and they use public blogs to keep abreast of customer satisfaction and issues. Customers often have great faith in employee bloggers. For example, a CEO who writes a blog may enhance the company image as long as there is no hard sell.

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
From "The Best of The Joy of Tech" cartoon book by Nitrozac and Snaggy (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 2003). (Image courtesy of GeekCulture.)