blog

A Web site (or section of a Web site) where users can post a chronological, up-to-date e-journal entry of their thoughts. Each post usually contains a Web link. Basically, it is an open forum communication tool that, depending on the Web site, is either very individualistic or performs a crucial function for an organization or company. There are three basic varieties of blogs: those that post links to other sources, those that compile news and articles, and those that provide a forum for opinions and commentary.

Part of the appeal of blogging is that the programs you use to publish your insights on the World Wide Web are easy-to-use and you do not have to be a programmer, or even know how to code.

In terms of the origin, the first blogger --regarded by many to be Jorn Barger-- began his business of hunting and gathering links, to which he appended some of his own commentary, on Dec. 23, 1997. On his site, Robot Wisdom, Mr. Barger wrote: "I decided to start my own webpage logging the best stuff I find as I surf, on a daily basis," and the Oxford English Dictionary regards this as the primordial root of the word "weblog." Others, such as David Winer, who blogged with Scripting News, and Cameron Barrett, who started CamWorld, were alongside the Mr. Barger. So it is by widespread consensus that 1997 is a reasonable point at which to mark the emergence of the blog as a distinct life-form. However, some purists date the first web log back to 1991, when Tim Berners-Lee, father of the World Wide Web, created "What's New?" pages that linked to other websites.

For the largest list of Internet acronyms and text message jargon, click on "more info" below!