This document defines what a blog is and provides a brief history and overview of blogging. It discusses how blogs originated from weblogs and emerged as a tool for self-publishing online. The document outlines the typical anatomy of a blog post and different types of blogs. It also discusses popular blog hosting services and proposes a blogger's code of conduct.

1. Dheeraj Singh Negi

2. INTRODUCTION
 Blog: The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn
Barger on 17 December 1997. Then Peter Merholz,
jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we
blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in
1999, from where it becomes popular as "blog".
Thus Blog is derived from Weblog. Blog or weblog
is a web-based publication consisting primarily of
periodic articles normally in reverse chronological
order with reflections, comments, and often
hyperlinks provided by the writer.

3. Definition: Blogs have different meaning to different
people, ranging from “online journal” to “easily updated
personal website”. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter)
that is frequently updated and intended for general
public consumption. Blogs generally represent the
personality of the author or the Web site.
According to Concept Websites Ltd
(http://www.conceptwebsites.com/SEO/common-terms.
htm), “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”.

4. In simple, it can be said that it is a web based website where
articles posted will automatically be arranged in reverse
chronological fashion or in a chronological fashion. The
owner/member will post message which are sometimes rich
with graph, audio, video and hyperlink periodically enabling
others to view and comment. Topics often include the
owner's/member’s daily life or views on a particular subject or
topic of important to the group. The original post with its
associated comments and discussion provide a very insight to
the topic at hand.
Many blogs are frequently updated and publicly accessible i.e
they allow anybody to sign up at any time; some others are
private where entry to the group is restricted. Some advanced
users have server-side software, and often implement
membership management and password protected areas.
Others have created a mix of a blog and wiki, called a bliki.

5. HISTORY
At the initial stage of internet development, Usenet, e-mail lists, Bulletin Board
Systems (BBS), chronicles, commonplaces, diaries, and perzines were used as a
form of Citizen Media. Bulletin Board is a service whereby messages and points of
interest can be posted to be read and replied to unlike list server. The news group
provides access to thousands of topic based discussion group services which are
open to all. The news reader software allows one to post an article to any group for
others to read. A comment to the message (original) can be added to the thread of
the article. In recent times these are effectively replaced by the “blog”.
During recent days, blog has evolved into a tool that offers some of the most insightful
information on the Web. It provides self-publishing phenomenon represented by
blogging and becoming much more common in LIS, as librarians, libraries and
library associations have begun to blog as a way of communicating with their
patrons and constituents. Many librarians world wide also publish their personal
blogs that offer a wealth of information about librarianship, their parent institution
and sometimes to their personal lives as well.
The emergence of blogging provides a medium to give readers of the library new
perspectives on the realities, as well as often offering different viewpoints from
those of its official news sources. Many bloggers began to provide nearly-instant
commentary on televised events, creating a secondary meaning of the word
"blogging": to simultaneously transcribe and editorialize speeches and events
shown on television (liveblogging).

6. ANATOMY OF A BLOG ENTRY:
Blog uses web interfaces that allow anyone over the
Internet, to create blogs by their own. It usually
does not demand the maintenance of server
software by the users themselves. It also does not
demand to go for the HTML. A blog entry typically
consists of the following:
Title: The main title, or headline, of the post;
Body: Main content of the post;
Permalink: The URL of the full, individual article;
Post Date: Date and time the post published.

7. BLOG TYPES
 There are various types of blogs, and each differs
in the way content is delivered or written. A typical
blog combines text, images, and links to other
blogs, web pages, and other media related to its
topic, the ability to quote another user's post with
special formatting in ones post is also a special
feature of many blogs. Generally, blog can be
categorized as follows:

8. Linklog: A blog comprising links;
Moblog: A blog written by a mobile phone or
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA);
Photoblog: A blog comprising photos;
Podcasting: Blog containing audio;
Vlog: A blog comprising videos.

9. BLOG IMPORTANCE
 Blogging combined the site with tools to make
linking to other pages easier specifically
permalinks, blogrolls and TrackBacks. This,
together with blog search engines enabled bloggers
to track the threads that connected them to others
with similar interests.

11. BLOG SEARCH ENGINE
Blogdigger
Bloglines
Feedster
IceRocket
PubSub

12. BLOG HOSTING SERVICES
 Blogs are generally hosted by dedicated blog
hosting services or on regular web hosting services.
Most of the free blog hosting services are ad-supported
but generally have unlimited posting
bandwidth and storage space. Generally, a small
advertisement square banner is placed on the user
blog, which does not affect the overall make up the
said blog. Many blog hosting services also notified
the blogger when someone adds some comments
on his/her blog. Examples include the following

13. Blogger (https://www.blogger.com/start): Blogger was started
by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs of San
Francisco) in August 1999 and was purchased by Google in
February 2003.
ii) coComment (http://www.cocomment.com/): coComment is
a Swiss startup company funded by Swisscom Innovations
and focused on providing high quality services to internet
users worldwide. The company is based in Geneva,
Switzerland.
iii) LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/): Brad Fitzpatrick
started LiveJournal in March 1999. The LiveJournal can be
used as a private journal, a blog, a discussion forum, a social
network, and like other.
iv) Open Diary (http://www.opendiary.com/): Launched in
October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online diaries.
Open Diary becomes the first blog community where readers
could add comments to other writers' blog entries.

14. Pitas.com (http://www.pitas.com/): Andrew Smales
created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier
alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a
website, followed by Diaryland in September 1999,
focusing more on a personal diary community.
Xanga (http://www.xanga.com/): Launched in
1996, had only 100 diaries by 1997, but over 20
million as of December 2005.

15. BEHAVIOR
The Blogger's Code of Conduct is a proposal by Tim
O'Reilly for bloggers to enforce civility on their blogs by being
civil themselves and moderating comments on their blog. The
code was proposed in 2007 due to threats made to
blogger Kathy Sierra. The idea of the code was first reported
by BBC News, who quoted O'Reilly saying, "I do think we
need some code of conduct around what is acceptable
behaviour, I would hope that it doesn't come through any kind
of regulation it would come through self-regulation."[
O'Reilly and others came up with a list of seven proposed ideas:[
Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the
comments you allow on your blog.
Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
Ignore the trolls.

16.  Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an
intermediary who can do so.
 If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them
so.
 Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in
person.
 These ideas were predictably intensely discussed on the
Web and in the media. While the internet has continued
to grow, with online activity and discourse only picking
up both in positive and negative ways in terms of blog
interaction, the proposed Code has drawn more
widespread attention to the necessity of monitoring
blogging activity and social norms being as important
online as offline.