Blogs are not simply diary pages

' If you want to make a debate, ask what blogs people are ,' said Jeremy Zawodny, Yahoo's software engineer. Newspapers often use the phrase ' online personal journal ' whenever they need a brief explanation of a blog. This definition is not wrong, but it is not entirely true.

The diary is arranged in a chronological order, while the blog is constantly changing, which information has just been edited, the update will appear on the top. More importantly, the definition ignores a major feature of blogs. Typically, diaries are personal, confidential and of course never linked to other diaries. People will be in big trouble if they dare to read others' confidences curiously. But blogs are social, whether they are in public or group mode (only one group of viewers is allowed). One of the features that best reflects the social nature of blogs is 'blogroll', located on the margins of the website, listing links to other blogs. In fact, blogroll is a way for authors to put their blogs into a specific audience, and also a way for bloggers (who open their own blog sites) to know each other on the Internet.

The term blog appeared in 1997 when Jorn Barger, one of the few people who created his own website at the time, called his site 'weblog'. In 1999, another character, Peter Merholz, mischievously separated the word into 'we blog' (we created a personal website). Accordingly, the random 'blog' plays both a noun and a verb. Technically, it is a website for owners to regularly post information, usually short texts and links to other blogs or websites. In addition, they can post pictures (photoblog) and videos (vlogs). Each post is contained in a separate archive page that bloggers still call a permalink. On average, Technorati search site recorded about 50,000 new posts per hour.

Dave Winer, a software engineer pioneered a few technologies for blogging and built a page that he himself rated as the "most senior" blog (since 1997), arguing that the existence of a blog is the thing. necessary because it is 'the world of each individual'. The blog contains pure, non-polished but highly authentic views. However, this definition does not account for blogs created by companies, community relations organizations or press agencies.

' Initially, I thought this was a way to express my opinion in front of the community, now I find it to be a revolutionary means of communication, ' said Mena Trott, founder of Six Apart. The company that Mena Trott and her husband opened proved this statement through three main products. Movable Type is a blogging software that is so popular with reputable bloggers. TypePad is a similar service that comes with web-hosting (renting a web server). Blogs using these two tools attract an average audience of up to 600 people.

The third product, LiveJournal, is a completely different blog tool. 60% of LiveJournal users are under the age of 21 and are women. Articles often contain stories about going out to the night before, ' why am I sad ' or 'is it difficult for adults ',' did anyone watch King Kong at 8pm? '. and get feedback in just a few minutes. LiveJournal is for those who think e-mail is too obsolete and wants to turn the blog into a 'chat chit' tool. With this type of communication, the average readership of each blog is only about 7 people but that number is normal during the current ' personal communication ' period. Now, blog is not a personal page but a place to exchange and share common interests.

According to Mena Trott, the blog actually represents conversation. The creator and the reader participate in informal conversations, even "headless" without end and the subject is changed, constantly changed.

Currently, Technorati says a new blog appears every second and 'blogosphere' (blogosphere) is doubling in size over a 5-month period. Germans are exposed to blogs quite late. Only 1% of individual web sites belong to this country while in Japan it is 41%, 28% in the UK and 14% in China.

' Like e-mail accounts, everyone will have a blog within five years ', Sabeer Bhatia, who founded BlogEverywhere.com, allows people to attach blogs to any website. Just one click, confirm. Bhatia is one of the people who helped make e-mail popular as it is today after opening Hotmail service, currently under Microsoft's management.

Hai Nguyen