What Is a Blog?
A blog is a website that can be run by an individual or a group of people. It is regularly updated with blogposts that are written by the blogger, the person running the blog. Many blogs express the blogger's opinions about current events and the issues of the day. Others are very personal and serve as a kind of online journal or diary. Entries are typically displayed in reverse chronological order.
Blogs can include text, pictures and links to other websites. Many are interactive, allowing for readers to make comments. The vast majority of blogs are run by individuals using services like Blogger or WordPress. Others are large, commercial operations with many contributors, such as The Huffington Post.
According to pioneering blogger Rebecca Blood, blogs began in the late 1990s and quickly spread in 1999 with the launching of Pitas, the first free build-your-own-weblog tool.
What is the Blogosphere?
The blogosphere refers to the community of all blogs and bloggers. Today there are millions of blogs worldwide, so many in fact that they are tracked by search engines such as Technorati.
Blogs can focus on any topics, but many of the most popular blogs, according to Technorati, are centered on politics, culture and technology and the internet.
Journalist Bloggers
Many journalists now maintain blogs, and according to Technorati, 95 percent of the top 100 U.S. newspapers have reporter-run blogs. Reporters are increasingly being asked to keep a blog in addition to producing articles.
The New York Times has links to its blogs here and lists other interesting blogs here.
