The wide and growing world of blogging

If you’re starting to explore what a blog is for the first time, you’ll likely find yourself overwhelmed by a plethora of strange terms. Soon you’ll start to think they’re just making up some kind of blog by appending a random letter in front of “log”. Which is probably not too far from the truth. However, there is nothing to fear. We’ve put together a short, concise guide to the world of blogging to help you understand a type of media that seems to be taking the internet by storm.

First of all the basics

What is a blog?

A blog is a form of communication written from a personal perspective for public consumption. The key is that a blog is not objective. It’s completely subjective and that’s part of the reason for the popularity of blogs. When you read one, you almost feel like you “know” the person writing it. The blog normally communicates from person to person instead of targeting a larger audience. So if we can sum it up, we would basically describe a blog as something that communicates on a personal level to the general public. And yes, that seems to be an oxymoron. However, it’s probably the best one sentence description of what a blog is without describing the technology itself. And since we are going to discuss the various types of blogs, we need to understand it at its most basic level.

BLOG FORMS

A blog ‘format’ is nothing more than the type of media used to create the blog. In an increasingly digital world, we are given a wide variety of options that we can use to communicate with other people. Naturally, most of these devices have been used to generate a blog. And if they don’t, they soon will be. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the more common variations on the traditional blog.

VLOG/VLOGGING/VIDEO BLOGGING

The ‘vlog’ is something that emerged relatively recently. Essentially it is exactly what its name describes. It is a video recording directed personally to the general public. This form of blog has been mainly adopted by the corporate world, which sees it as a new way of communicating with the end user or consumer. This is not a medium that the average user has embraced, yet. However, over time this form of blogging is expected to gain greater acceptance and popularity.

A new and emerging type of “Vlog” is the Vodcast, which is nothing more than a “live” version of the vlog.

Some useful links for Vlogs:

Wikipedia entry for Vlog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlog>

evideoshare http://www.evideoshare.com/> offers the ability to share vlogs with others

Vodcasts.tv http://www.vodcasts.tv/> offers a complete directory of vlogs on almost any topic

MOBLOGGING / MOBILE BLOGGING

Moblogging is a “style” of blogging. Essentially it means blogging on the go from a portable device of some kind. Most of these types of blogs take the form of images with the image of something serving the same purpose as the words.

A good reason to consider a moblog is when you want to give someone else the experience of being at an event without being physically present. Of course, this also applies to the aforementioned vlog. The “new baby” seems to be a popular reason to moblog. And the concept of ‘babies’ can be applied very flexibly, as corporations also use it to introduce new products just as often. One could almost make the case for giving this type of blog post (the photo) the nickname “Phlog”, but then again, do we really need another term to keep track of? No, probably not.

The other form of moblog is the blog entry made from a digital communication device such as a bluetooth or a pocket computer. There is essentially no difference between a traditional blog and this type of moblog other than the fact that you do it on the go.

Some useful links for Moblogs:

Flickrblog http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2004/07/turn_any_blog_i.html is a service that allows you to quickly post images to your blog.

SnapNpost http://www.snapnpost.com/?source=adwords is another company that offers assistance with posting photos.

FLOG(s) / FAKE BLOGS

As soon as a new technology emerges, the business world adopts it for nefarious purposes only a short time later. Of course, the purpose is only nefarious from the point of view of the consumer. For the corporation it is usually a very good idea. And of course this applies to ‘flog’. A spanking is just what it says. It is a fake blog. It is a blog written from the perspective of a fictitious individual for the purpose of promoting some product or service or, in some cases, for the sole purpose of deception.

Of course, corporations aren’t the only ones flogging. It’s probably just as popular with people, but most of them can keep it a secret much better and for a longer period of time.

PODCAST

Podcasting may seem out of the scope of the blog, but in most cases it is not. A podcast is nothing more than a personal radio program, broadcast from an individuals own computer or other digital device. The only big difference between a podcast and a blog is that the podcast is usually for a certain period of time and is given “live”, while the various types of blogs are usually a record of what happened in the past, whether that last a few minutes or several days.