Blog is blend of the term Web Log. The term Weblog was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997, then shortened to blog by Peter Merholz in 1999. After that it became popular in the name of Blog.

So what is a Blog? A blog, is a  personal diary, a breaking-news outlet, a  collection of links, a private thoughts, your memos or  a journal that is available on the web. Or, simply we can say, a blog is a type of website that is usually arranged in chronological order from the most recent ‘post’ (or entry) at the top of the main page to the older entries towards the bottom.  We can define blog in many ways.

Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical
background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are mostly arranged in
chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.

In simple terms, a blog is a website, where you write material on an ongoing basis. New
items show up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they may or may not
comment on it, or link to it, or email you.

Here are a few definitions from other popular websites:

‘A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser.’
Source

‘A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.’ Source

‘From “Web log.” A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.”‘
Source

‘A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide who you get to know. There are many guides to choose from, each develops an audience, and there’s also comraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs, they point to each other, in all kinds of structures, graphs, loops, etc.’ Source

‘A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.” Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in cronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominantly.’
Source

‘A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”. A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. A blog comprises text, hypertext, images, and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other files). Blogs use a conversational style of documentation. Often blogs focus on a particular “area of interest”, such as Washington, D.C.’s political goings-on. Some blogs discuss personal experiences.’
Source.

‘A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.’ Source

Blogs tend to have a few things in common:
• A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories.
• An archive of older articles.
• A way for people to leave comments about the articles.
• A list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a "blogroll".
• One or more "feeds" like RSS, Atom or RDF files. Some blogs may have additional features beyond these.

Is a Blog a Webpage?
• To the reader, a blog is a webpage
• To the author, a blog is an authoring system that allows them to create a webpage
without knowing HTML or other web technologies and without needing special
software

How are Blogs Different?
• Blogs use a journal or diary metaphor
•  A user makes a post instead of making a page
• Posts are most often ordered by date
•  Posts can also be ordered by other criteria, such as user-defined categories

So Why Use a Blog?
• To Distribute the information - Providing an easy way to publish and access information

• To make Interaction-  Giving people the ability to respond to the content of a blog posting via comments and links.  This interaction is optional and depends on the purpose of the blog.  Many bloggers choose to turn off the reader comments functionalityof their blog.

Some Keywords in Blog

Blogging  -  activity of updating/maintaining articles in blog
Blogger - someone who keeps/authenticate/maintains/writes a blog
Blog posts/Entries/Posts - Individual articles/posts on a blog
Tags – label used to describe  the content of web sites

Blogosphere -The online community of blogs and bloggers. The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions.

Archives – An archive is a collection of individual publications that are often cataloged or listed and made accessible in some way.  A lot of blogs feature an archive based on dates (like a monthly or yearly archive). The front page of a blog may feature a calendar of dates linked to daily archives. Archives can also be based on categories featuring all the articles related to a specific category.  It does not stop there; you can also archive your posts by author or alphabetically. The possibilities are endless. This ability to organize and present articles in a composed fashion is much of what makes blogging a popular personal publishing tool.

Feeds - A Feed is a function of special software that allows "Feedreaders" to access a site automatically looking for new content and then post updates about that new content to another site. This provides a way for users to keep up with the latest and hottest information posted on different blogging sites. Some Feeds include RSS (alternately defined as "Rich Site Summary" or "Really Simple Syndication"), Atom or RDF files. Dave Shea, author of the web design weblog Mezzoblue has written a comprehensive summary of feeds.

Comments – Not all blogs use comments – but most do. This blog is not a monologue but a conversation. You can give me feedback on almost everything I write simply by clicking the ‘comments’ link at the bottom of each one of my posts. This will take you to a little form where you leave your name, email and a link to your own blog if you have one as well as your feedback, comment, critique, question, essay on why you love my blog, promise of money…. etc). Try it now. Scroll to the bottom of this page, click ‘comments’ and fill in the blanks with a little introduction to yourself.

Blogrolls - A blogroll is a list, sometimes categorized, of links to webpages the author of a blog finds worthwhile or interesting. The links in a blogroll are usually to other blogs with similar interests. The blogroll is often in a "sidebar" on the page or featured as a dedicated separate web page. BlogRolling and blo.gs are two websites that provide some interesting functions or help related to blogrolls. These sites provide methods for users to maintain these rolls effortlessly and integrate them into weblogs. WordPress has a built-in Link Manager so users do not have to depend on a third party for creating and managing their blogroll. 

 Syndication - A feed is a machine readable (usually XML) content publication that is updated regularly. Many weblogs publish a feed (usually RSS, but also possibly Atom and RDF and so on, as described above). There are tools out there that call themselves "feedreaders". What they do is they keep checking specified blogs to see if they have been updated, and when the blogs are updated, they display the new post, and a link to it, with an excerpt (or the whole contents) of the post. Each feed contains items that are published over time. When checking a feed, the feedreader is actually looking for new items. New items are automatically discovered and downloaded for you to read. Just so you don't have to visit all the blogs you are interested in. All you have to do with these feedreaders is to add the link to the RSS feed of all the blogs you are interested in. The feedreader will then inform you when any of the blogs have new posts in them. Most blogs have these "Syndication" feeds available for the readers to use.

Blogs in Education

The use of blogs in instructional settings is limited only by your imagination.

Options for instructors using blogs include:
• Content-related blogs as a professional practice
• Networking and personal knowledge sharing
• Instructional tips for students
• Course announcements and readings
• Annotated links
• Knowledge management

Options for students using blogs in courses include:
• Reflective or writing journals
• Knowledge management
• Assignment submission and review
• Dialogue for group work
• E-portfolios
• Share course-related resources

Advantages of Blogs to Teachers:
• Web based authoring – like Blackboard
• Design is totally separate from content
• Search, comment system and rich archiving tools are built in
• Content is stored in a database allowing for robust data-driven operations

Advantages of Blogs to Students:
• Students have access to instructor’s notes on the Internet. Students also have the
option of previewing the class material before class and reviewing the material after
class.
• Because students are connected to the Internet, they have access to different
dictionaries and bibliographies.
• Because the class material is organized into sections, students can easily find
information.
• Students can read comments for the class as a whole and comments directed at
them individually. This maximizes feedback and contact with the teacher.
• Students can observe their progress over time.

Disadavantages of Blogs:

• Blogs generally have no assessment or polling features.
• Although they often have a comment feature, blogs are not message or discussion
boards.
• In general, blogs have limited community features such as those found in
Blackboard.
• 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.
• Blogs are easy to start but hard to maintain. Writing coherently is one of the most
difficult and time-consuming tasks. As a result, many blogs are not updated, thus
damaging rather than enhancing the reputation of the organization.

Few Basic Blogging Tips

If you are starting a new blog, it is difficult and this can put many people off. Some may get off to a good start only to become quickly discouraged because of the lack of comments or visits. You want to stand out from this crowd of millions of bloggers, you want to be one of the few hundred thousand blogs that are actually visited. Here are some simple tips to help you on your way to blogging mastery:

   1. Post regularly, but don't post if you have nothing worth posting about.
   2. Stick with only a few specific genres to talk about.
   3. Don't put 'subscribe' and 'vote me' links all over the front page until you have people that like your blog enough to ignore them (they're usually just in the way).
   4. Use a clean and simple theme if at all possible.
   5. Enjoy, blog for fun, comment on other peoples' blogs (as they normally visit back).

Where to start? 

Here are some popular free blogging sites:
• http://www.blogger.com
• http://www.blogster.com
• http://www.bigadda.com
• http://www.wordpress.com
• http://www.tumblr.com
• http://www. awardspace.com

Some Popular IT Blogs:

Here are some popular free blogging sites:
• http://www.techcrunch.com
• http://www.pcworld.com
• http://www.wired.com
• http://www.infoworld.com
• http://www.mashable.com
• http://www.bnet.com/
• http://www.lifehacker.com/
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/
• http://www.engadget.com/
• http://www.techrepublic.com/
• http://www.ictenter.com.np
• http://www.tech.aakarpost.com
• http://www.technerves.com
• http://dacharya.blogspot.com

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