What is a Blog in Simple Words

Blogs are not necessarily personal:

The main misconception regarding the definition of blogs comes from people that associate blogs with their content. More specifically from people that associate blogs with the content from one particular type of blog: Personal blogs.

In other words, those people think that blogs are online diaries where people share their opinions, ramblings and personal events. Which is Wrong!

"That is just one of the things that you could do with a blog as a Personal Blog".

Today blogs are being used for all sorts of purposes. You have companies that use blogs to communicate and interact with customers and other stake holders. Newspapers that incorporated blogs to their main website to offer a new channel for their writers. Individuals that created a blog to share with the world their expertise on specific topics. And so on.

So What Is A Blog?

A blog is basically a type of website, like a forum or a social bookmarking site. As such it is defined by the technical aspects and features around it, and not by the content published inside it.

The features that make blogs different from other websites are:

• content is published in a chronological fashion
• content is syndicated via RSS feeds
• content is updated regularly
• other blog authors can interact via trackbacks and pingbacks
• readers have the possibility to leave comments

Keep in mind that it is the bundle of those features that should define a blog. An online forum could also offer an RSS feed for example, but that would not make it a blog.

What is a Definition?

As I mentioned on the beginning of this article, blogs represent a social phenomenon, so they are in constant evolution. The Internet itself is changing very fast, so pin pointing a single definition for blogging is a hard task.

The definition above is my personal one, and I am sure that other people will want to add or remove details to it. Some might even completely disagree.

That is why I decided to turn the mic to the readers. I want to hear what you think a blog is. What characteristics define it? Is the definition changing over time?

I am looking forward to reading your definitions of blogs!