A blog is a lot like an online journal, but it can be written by a number of people, or by just one person. Each post is written on a website in chronological order, but usually displayed in reverse order. The term ‘blogging’ or ‘blog’ can also be used as a verb to imply an action - in other words, that of posting a comment on a blog.

The word ‘blog’ comes from Jorn Barger’s word ‘weblog’ and reportedly sprung into being when Peter Merholz divided it into the two words ‘we blog’ on his website for a laugh.

When lots of folks interact using a blog, they are typically discussing a particular subject of interest for them. Consequently, if someone wants to know what’s the best pink gadget to buy for his boat, others will write in with their comment on how that particular gadget worked - or didn’t work. Blogs are ideal for discovering what other folk’s experiences have been with anything you can conceive.

If some individual is knowledgeable on some sunject with a lot of experience that others can benefit from, then he may start up a blog about it and offer insights. He may in addition offer links to other sites that market things applicable to the area of expertise. Then again he may offer links to other articles or other blogs connected with the same subject.

Blogs utilize both images and text, but some blogs emphasize art (artblog), videos (vlog), images (photoblog) and audio, that is, podcasting or MP3. Blogs can be long or short, but those that are very short are referred to as micro-blogging. Blogs are typically updated frequently and the technology utilized today permits people who understand very little about it to become competent bloggers with just a tiny learning curve.

Early on, bloggers called themselves diarists, journalers, or even escribitionists. A comment or article placed on a blog is called a post, a blog post or an entry. Aged blogs on a topic are sometimes referred to as ‘archives’ and may be maintained on a different page or pages that are accessed via a hyperlink. There are at times a variety of links - like the index at the end of a book and they are found on the left or right of the blogging page.

The nice thing about blogging is that persons who have the same interests can all join together and talk about, getting familiar with each other (so to speak) at the same time.