What is a Blog?

What is a Blog

Although blogs/blogging has been prevalent in the local online community for more than a decade now, not much of the Philippine population has actually a clear idea on what exactly ‘blogs‘ or ‘blogging‘ is about.

The are at least 25 million Internet users in the Philippines today, That is about a fourth of the population given the total number of people in the Philippines reaching 100 million. But if you ask an average Internet user what is the difference of a regular website from blogs, I wonder if they could answer that straight and with certainty.

Formed from two words “web” and “log” pertaining to logs on the web, it is combined to be a “blog.” A few research and Ms. Janette Toral‘s book on introductory blogging “Blogging from Home, ” we came up with the following definition:

A blog is a type of website or a section of a website

• with a journal format
• arranged according to dates
• updated frequently
• usually has personal tone

Basically, the first characteristic is the strongest among the four and the next three are actually complementary or supportive of the first. Just like journals, the entries are ‘arranged according to dates,’ almost daily updated, and written in a personal tone or with the author’s own viewpoint.

This is highly in contrast to static websites which after having initially been set-up would only consist of the about page, contact, and perhaps a few of their products or services.

And that, is the answer to ‘what is a blog‘. ‘Blogging‘ is the activity of creating or writing a blog while the ‘blogger‘ is the one who writes or maintains the blog.