Bits'n'Bytes

As heard on CJCD

Episode 12

I'm sure by now, most of you have heard of the web term blogging. Lots of people are starting to talk about it, but for those of you who don't know, here's a brief overview of what it is…

The very first blogs, which apparently were posted on the Internet in 1994, were basically just lists of websites the person who posted the blog had seen. The poster added his own commentary to the links so someone who happened to stumble across his post could decide, from his comments, if they wanted to visit the website he'd listed or not. There weren't many blogs at that time, just 2 or 3 - and they weren't even called blogs yet. Originally called weblogs, in 1997 - the name was shortened to blogs in 1999, around the time the most popular blogging site came online - blogger dot com. To give you an idea of the rapid growth of blogging - at the beginning of 1999, it has been said there were 23 blogs on the entire internet. In July this year, over 70 million were online.

Just what are blogs now, though? Well, they're just about anything. They've changed from lists of links to other websites to online journals for anyone who wants to post. The reason blogs have become so popular is that anyone can become their own publisher - it doesn't get filtered through editors and such - what you want to write is what gets written. You can write about whatever you want 'cause anything goes. People can write about their own thoughts, facts, fiction - anything! Then, after a while, other people with similar interests may find your blog, or you may find someone else's and tell them about yours - and a small - likeminded community starts to grow. You can post comments on their blog, or write about their blog in yours. And the community gets a little bigger. At the same time, bloggers tend to find out a lot about themselves - which is really interesting.

Blogging can have some other benefits too. There are now b-blogs - which stand business blogs. Businesses are starting to post blogs so they can interact more with potential customers. They can maybe post something about one of their products and see what kind comments they get and adjust their plans accordingly.

There are k-blogs, which are knowledge blogs. These ones are usually fact based and the discussions can get quite in depth.

And it's all so easy! Create an account with one of the many free blogging sites and start typing! Just make sure you update it regularly so when people do find it, they keep coming back. It's a great way to communicate, and an even greater way to find out a lot about yourself!

Stay tuned next week for some interesting information on blogging.

I’m Computer Dave, thanks for your time.