This is probably one of most misunderstood concepts and I thought I’d elaborate upon what some of us might consider to be completely obvious. When most people think of a ‘weblog’ or ‘blog’, an image usually comes to mind of some loser rambling about their problems or mundane existence for the rest of world to see. While this may be true in the majority of cases, this couldn’t be farther from the origin of the word ‘blog.’
Weblogs are shorthand for ‘website logs.’ Back in the day (pre-2004), websites were often a chore to maintain. If anyone wanted to add new content to a webpage, they needed to hire a website designer to go in and manually add code and text. From a practical standpoint, this was extremely time-consuming and costly for an author or a company to update.
Along came weblogs. They offered an automated solution integrating websites with storage for content. If non-tech savvy author wanted to write a message, they could just simply type in their message and basically hit ’send.’ The corresponding website (or weblog) would automatically ‘log’ their information for the rest of the Internet world to see.
Weblogs took off in popularity amongst home-brewed authors who adopted these systems early on. Sites such as Blogger and Typepad took off, and largely gave meaning to what most people think of a ‘blog’ today. Anyone could suddenly write about their hobbies are what they had for breakfast.
Today, people don’t often even realize when they’re looking at a blogging system. Facebook and Myspace pages are built upon blogging foundations. They’re essentially blogs linked to other blogs within a larger framework. Their overall simplicity allows people around the world to have a ‘look at me’ page. It allows us to connect and sell to each other in one form or fashion.
A lot of major news websites such as CNN or Time are also built upon blogging software. If you’re homepage is Yahoo or MSN, then chances are that it runs on some type of elaborate blogging system. Some of these ‘fancier’ sites may be slightly more elaborate than your standard blogging systems (such as Movabletype, Wordpress, or Expression Engine.) Some blogging systems, such as Joomla, offer additional functions and are often referred to as ‘Content Management Systems.’
In a nutshell however, weblogs are a form of content management systems (CMS.) They simply manage and organize content for display. So the next time you look at a website you frequent very often, think twice before dismissing it as a ‘blog.’ More than likely you are really looking at one, but simply fail to realize it.
-Charles Leo
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...