Blog is short for “Web log”. A blog often looks like a website with pages and navigation links. You know your on a blog if you see dated entries or blog posts on the home page. Blogs will have posts in chronological order with the most recent post appearing at the top of the page. Blog posts will also be assigned to one or more categories – and you can generally find a list of categories in the sidebar.
Here is the definition of a blog from Wikipedia:
“A blog (a contraction of the term “weblog“)[1] is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.”
The blogosphere refers to the community of blogs and bloggers all over the world. Which brings up the subject of Social Networking and Web 2.0. If you haven’t already discovered it – the world in general – and in particular the Internet – is changing rapidly. Web 2.0 is the evolution of the web from an array of static websites (Web 1.0) providing information and limited communication to an interactive, real time, almost living and breathing entity with a life of its own.
Just take a moment to reflect on how you can interact with others all around the globe in so many ways now. Online dating services are an early example of the power of social networking. According to Wikipedia:
“U.S. residents spent $469.5 million on online dating and personals in 2004, the largest segment of “paid content” on the web, according to a study conducted by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and comScore Networks.” And that was 2004 statistics!
At the end of November 2004, there were 844 lifestyle and dating sites, a 38 percent increase since the start of the year, according to Hitwise Inc. However, market share was increasingly being dominated by several large commercial services, including Yahoo! Personals, Match.com, American Singles, and eHarmony.
It’s a job to keep up with all the new sites and technology we are bombarded with almost daily it seems. Have you heard of or experienced FLickr (photo sharing), LindedIN (Business networking), del.icio.us (Social bookmarking site), Twitter (micro-blogging platform), My Space, or Facebook (social networking site)? I bet your kids or your friends kids have. I also know some of your competitors and business contemporaries are on the cutting edge of the latest technology and are currently using the power of Web 2.0 for their business.
Here are some new words and phrases to get used to and learn about:
* social bookmarking
* social networking sites
* wikis
* podcasts
* RSS feeds A way to subscribe to and determine when new content is on a blog or site
* RSS feed readers – Here’s a link to common readers and a feed to my blog
* tagging – Think of a tag as a simple category name. People can categorize their posts, photos and videos with any tag that makes sense.
Recommendation: Go to a blog search engine like Technorati or Google Blog Search and start surfing some blogs of interest or see what the competition is up to in the blogosphere. Get familiar with the setup and flow of a blog. See what you like – formats, styles, the blogger’s voice. Try subscribing to a few and or making some comments -get involved in the blogosphere!
Related posts:
