Blogging
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Blogging and Blogs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting) or sexual in nature (Adult blog), and are part of a wider network of social media.

Blog Search Engines
  • Google Blog Search http://blogsearch.google.com/
    This is a new beta product.
  • Blogpulse http://www.blogpulse.com/
  • Topix find a blog for whatever your interest is, such as: your vehicle, your pet, your hobby, etc., etc.

Blog Services and Software
  • Blogger free blog service

  • Bloglines lets you set up a list of blogs to keep track of, which can be accessed from any Internet-connected computer.
  • Gravatar registers your globally recognized avatar, meaning those 80x80 pixel pictures/icons/graphics that appear next to some names in blogs. Sign up here and upload your gravatar, and learn how to use it to help identify yourself in blogs.
  • Greymatter forums and software for blogging

  • Manila software for blogging

  • Geeklog software for blogging

  • LiveJournal free and pay open source blog service

  • Meshly is a combination microblog and social bookmarking tool.

  • Pitas free blog service

  • Radio Userland software for blogging: RadioUserland for individuals, Manila for groups. This is the community server address.

  • Tumblr is a tumblelog service ["A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging." -- Wikipedia].

  • Twitter is a popular miniblog which is limited to 140 characters per post.
  • Ujournal free and pay blog service

RSS Feeds (Updated Blogs, News, etc.) Software & Links

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (among other things). This is an easy way to check up on the latest news, blog postings, and other web site changes.
First: the site must have RSS featured, usually with the or the newer RSS feed symbols (or one that says "XML"). You can use your browser's built-in RSS function, or a separate RSS reader program to search a page for such links, and add them to your list of RSS "feeds" to search every so often. If anything new has been posted since you last checked, you will be alerted (depending on the RSS reader you use).
For example: Firefox has several extensions that handle RSS feeds, including one called Sage (see the Firefox page for links to extensions).
Internet Explorer 7 has included a similar RSS function.

Blogs are becoming more popular, and often have very up-to-date information about your areas of interest. While you do have to allow for whomever is creating the blog (how objective is this person, assuming you want objective information?), it's a useful way to gain insight into current events and the opinions of a number of well-known people.

Videoblogging

"Videoblogging is a new form of expression centering around posting videos to a website and encouraging an audience response. It is the next step from text blogging and podcasting." [defined by videoblogging.info]

Example Policies of Companies and Organizations

Advice for Blogging
  • BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, gives advice and links