Web logs, or blogs, began popping up on the Internet as early as 1997, and there have been several noted attempts at defining the technology and differentiating the medium from standard Web pages. One of the earliest definitions of blogs actually came from a blogger in 1999 as he struggled to classify the content on his frequently updated Web site. Cameron Barrett published a short essay on his blog called “Anatomy of a Weblog” in which he defined a blog as a small, frequently updated Web site maintained by a single individual with many repeat visitors.

The current technical definition of a blog asserts that it is a Web page with a series of dated entries arranged in reverse chronological order. Every blog includes standard elements ...