The number of weblogs – or blogs – on the internet is growing rapidly. In the beginning of 1997 there were just a handful of these sites and they mainly consisted of a collection of links, enriched by comments, thoughts and ideas of the writer (the blogger).

At this moment there are all kinds of weblogs and there are millions of them. Together they form the “blogosphere”, the web of blogs. Made you curious? If you want to explore the blogosphere or start a weblog yourself, maybe this article is a useful introduction.

What are weblogs?

A weblog contains messages and reactions on these messages, all arranged chronologically. In many cases there is a calendar so one can look for older messages. Further you will find a list with links to other weblogs (the blogroll). A list with referrers, links from other sites to this weblog, may also be included.

Most blogs are updated very frequently, daily or even several times a day. And as they are often linked to other blogs, remarkable events and news can spread very rapidly – much faster than with the conventional media.

The majority of weblogs are “lifelogs” or personal diaries, maintained by one person and not very frequently visited by others. To the blogger the lack of visits often doesn’t matter. Writing is a nice hobby and it’s fun to publish your very own content on the web. Writing down your own thoughts and ideas also gives you a better insight into your interests. For writers, journalists, celebrities and anyone who has already raised the attention of an audience, weblogs are a cheap and fast way to reach their public.

There are also weblogs that deal with a specific subject such as Formula 1, cats , political events ore whatever. Relevant news items are often included. And there are of course weblogs based entirely on news items. The Dutch newsweblog Geenstijl.nl is a good example of this category. In business the popularity of weblogs is growing too. Companies can present themselves or their employes or they can sponsor a weblog. Most weblogs contain only text but there are also photoblogs and blogs that are based on audio and video. Relatively new is the moblog, a blog that is updated with a mobile phone.

Surfing on the blogosphere

Suppose I want to search the blogosphere, would my webbrowser be the best choice? Well, it can do the job, but other search engines will find more actual information for you, such as Feedster (www.feedster.com), Technorati (www.technorati.com) or BlogPulse (www.blogpulse.com).

Blogpulse has an interesting option, Trend Search. This valuable tool can tell you how often a certain subject was mentioned in the blogosphere and that’s nice if you’re doing some marketing investment.

When you read many different weblogs, you must visit them frequently to check for new messages. When these messages are offered in a special format, a feed, there are programs by which you can read those feeds without having to visit each weblog. If you want to work with feeds, Feedreader is a handy program. It can be downloaded at www.feedreader.com.

Your own weblog

If you want to start your own weblog, there are two options: Either you can start your weblog with help of an online blogserver or you can install blogsoftware on your own website.

If you choose the last option, you first need a webserver or an account on a hosting provider. Furthermore you must have technical knowledge of HTML, PHP and MySQL. After installing the blogsoftware, you can organize the database for your messages and build your site.

The advantage of working with your own blogtools is the freedom you have when determining the looks and functionality of your site. There are several opensource weblog programs, such as Pivot (www.pivotlog.net), Textpattern (www.textpattern.com) and WordPress (wordpress.org).

As already mentioned, you can also open an account on an online blogserver. The server creates a weblog for you and offers templates to design your blog. Thus it’s easy to start your own weblog without much technical knowledge. Often you can even include photos or video in your messages. If you take the restrictions in design and possibilities for granted, an online blogserver offers you an easy way to start your blog within minutes. Free online blogservers are:

Blogger (www.blogger.com), MSN Spaces (http://spaces.msn.com), Web-log.nl (http://web-log.nl) and the free lite-version of MovableType (www.sixapart.com/movabletype).

If you want to know more about weblogs: In the year 2000 Rebecca Blood has written a book on blogging. More info can be found at: (www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html).

The next site offers short info and many links: (http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/blog/).

And for the Dutch readers: Rogier Mostert has written a book “Weblogs” ISBN 90-430-1127-4 (www.mostert.org/boek/weblogs).

This article is based on information in Computer Totaal, nr.11, November 2005

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