What is a “blog”?
“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog is a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.
Many blogs focus on a particular topic, such as web design, home staging, sports, or mobile technology. Some are more eclectic, presenting links to all types of other sites. And others are more like personal journals, presenting the author’s daily life and thoughts.
Generally speaking (although there are exceptions), blogs tend to have a few things in common:
• A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories.
• An archive of older articles.
• A way for people to leave comments about the articles.
• A list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a “blogroll”.
• One or more “feeds” like RSS, Atom or RDF files.
In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not. A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.
The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers.
As well as text, blogs often contain audio, music, images and video. They’re also really easy to make, so you can have one even if you aren’t very technical. Anything can be posted instantly to a blog.
What is a weblog post?
A weblog post has three basic attributes: title, link and description. All are optional. Some weblogs only have descriptions. Others always have all three.
Blog-related terms
Blaudience :
The audience, or readership, of a blog
Blog client :
(weblog client) is software to manage (post, edit) blogs from operating system with no need to launch a web browser. A typical blog client has an editor, a spell-checker and a few more options that simplify content creation and editing.
Blogger :
Person who runs a blog. Also blogger.com, a popular blog hosting web site. Rarely: weblogger.
Blog feed :
The XML-based file in which the blog hosting software places a machine-readable version of the blog so that it may be “syndicated” for further distribution on the web. Formats such as RSS and Atom are used to structure the XML file.
Blogroll :
A list of blogs. A blogger features a list of their favorite blogs in the sidebar of their blog.
Categories
This is a method of organizing blog entries by assigning each entry to a predetermined topic. Each topic (category) will link to a list of entries, all with related content.
Hits :
Number of users visited is often referred as hits. (website / blog hits)
Linkroll :
A list of recently-bookmarked links with brief descriptions, in the sidebar of a blog
Permalink :
Permanent link. The unique URL of a single post. Use this when you want to link to a post somewhere.
Template :
Templates, used on the “back end” of a blog that work together to handle information and present it on a blog.
Theme :
CSS based code that when applied to the templates will result in visual element changes to the blog. The theme, as a whole, is also referred to as a blog design.
Alex Jose
S5 CSE
