What is a Blog?


"A blog is sometimes referred to as an online personal journal. It is a site designated for an individual to write about his/her daily experiences, to illicit thoughts and often allowing readers to offer their comments. The term is a shortened form of “weblog”. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding content to an existing blog is referred to as "blogging". Individual articles on a blog are referred to as “blog posts”, “posts”, or “entries”, and the person who created the blog post is often called a “blogger”."
http://forum.telestream.net/forum/help/english/What_is_a_Blog.htm


How are blogs different to normal sites?

"1. Blogs Get Indexed Quickly By Search Engines Normal Websites Don’t!

2. New Content Added To A Blog Is Instantly Viewable And Picked Up Superfast By Search Engines!

 More information on these two points visit the link below."
http://www.internetbusinessmart.com/featured/why-blogs-always-win.php

Why People use blogs?
"Blogs are extremely useful, both to the writer and the reader. The writer may have a lot of knowledge to share, and the reader may want an informal way to learn about a topic. Some people use blogs to find other people with similar problems, issues or situations. Blogs can be anonymous, which helps a lot of people share information without being known."
more information is provided on the website link below.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_people_use_blogs

Advantages and Disadvantages of blogs
Advantages:

• The consumer and citizen are potentially better informed and this can only be good for the long-term health of our societies and economies.

• Blogs have potential to help the organization develop stronger relationships and brand loyalty with its customers, as they interact with the ‘human face’ of the organization through blogs.

• Blogs, in an intranet environment, can be an excellent way of sharing knowledge within the organization.

• Blogs can be a positive way of getting feedback, and keeping your finger on the pulse, as readers react to certain pieces, suggest story ideas, etc.

• Blogs can build the profile of the writer, showcasing the organization as having talent and expertise.

Disadvantages:

• Most people don’t have very much to say that’s interesting, and/or are unable to write down their ideas in a compelling and clear manner.

• I have often found that the people who have most time to write have least to say, and the people who have most to say don’t have enough time to write it. Thus, the real expertise within the organization lays hidden, as you get drowned in trivia.

• Like practically everything else on the Web, blogs are easy to start and hard to maintain. Writing coherently is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks for a human being to undertake. So, far from blogs being a cheap strategy, they are a very expensive one, in that they eat up time. As a result, many blogs are not updated, thus damaging rather than enhancing the reputation of the organization.

• Organizations are not democracies. The Web makes many organizations look like disorganizations, with multiple tones and opinions. Contrary to what some might think, the average customer prefers it if the organization they are about to purchase from is at least somewhat coherent.

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm

Find three interesting news stories about blogs and how they have affectes peoples lives.

This article shows the mass growing of blogs around the county. The blogosphere is continuing to grow, with a weblog created every second, according to blog trackers Technorati. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4737671.stm

"Blogs Will Change Your Business", this shows how more business's are trying to encourage the use of blogs and that it can be easier to learn from.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm

A 17-year-old girl has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage in connection with a house party which left a family home wrecked.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6553763.stm

How are comments useful on a blog?

Comments are useful on a blog as it can give people a wider variety of opinions on a certain topic. For example it could be a review of a hotel/game and books, from reading this people can get a better understanding wether to purchase or visit a certain place.

Screenshots of how to use a blog

The screenshot above is my template for my current blog on http://www.blogger.com/. This can be editeded in the design section, this is a good feature as you can upload gadgets for your blogs. When uploding gadgets you can re-arrange them in the template. Thsi is good as you can set which parts of your blgos are most important and can be viewed at the top of the blog. But there are some not so good features as by doing this poeple may miss out on some key information around the page this can be changed by re arranging the template in this mode to do so.