Blogs, Blogging

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 along with several optional features. Bloggers incorporate the optional features as access to the various technologies, expertise, and interest level allow. Today, there is still disagreement about [Page 60]which elements must be present in order for a Web page to be called a blog. Elements of blogs can include, but are not limited to, the post itself where the blogger publishes content, permalinks which represent the permanent links to the blog post (to be used after the blog post has been archived), the comment features where some bloggers allow readers to respond to the post and the comment is threaded into the original post, and trackbacks where other bloggers link to a particular blog post and the context and/or link is then threaded back into the original post.

Internet bloggers work on their Web log stories during the Democratic National Convention at the Fleet Center, July 26, 2004, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Source: Getty Images.

The social definition is more representative of describing what blogs really are. Bloggers are often described as opinionated people who use the outlet as a means to communicate their thoughts, ideas, reflections, and politics, resulting in the frequent label of “a soapbox.”