What is a blog? A year or two ago, most people had no idea what a blog was or why they would ever want to read one. Now, blogging is part of everyday life and most of us are familiar with the concept and even follow a blog or two. As we near our 100th blog post (today we hit 86), I thought it would be fitting to take some time to explain blogs and the programs available for readers and would-be bloggers.
A blog (web log) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject while others function as more personal online diaries. (definition taken from wikipedia.com) Although the term “weblog” was coined in 1997, it has only been over the past few years that the majority of us have become familiar with the concept.
Why would I care about a blog? Well, it simply boils down to what you like. If there is anything in this world that you want to know more about, blogs are a great way to gather information. Much like magazine articles, blogs provide readers with small, easy reads that can be digested in just a few minutes a day, for FREE. There are blogs for every subject, from your favorite music group to politics. I first started reading blogs, without knowing what they were, when my love of gadgets and electronics took me to sites like engadget.com and uncrate. I found myself logging on every morning and heading to a list of sites that had these simple, informative articles. It wasn’t until someone explained blogging that I realized what these sites really were.
Readers
I imagine that the majority of our readers are not first time blog readers, but how many of you are true “followers” of a blog. In other words, do you visit a site every day (or at least regularly) to see the latest post on one of your favorite subjects? What if you follow multiple blogs? Do you jump from site to site, looking for new article(s)? You might not know this, but there are programs/sites available to retrieve this information. One of the most popular, and easiest to use, is Google Reader. Google Reader is a web-based tool that “constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content. Whether a site updates daily or monthly, you can be sure that you won’t miss a thing.” (taken from Google Reader tour page)
Google Reader allows you to add your favorite blogs manually, search for blogs by topic or you can simply follow a blog by clicking on the RSS Feed link from the blog itself (see below). Every time there is a new article posted, from any of the blogs you follow, you will see it from within the reader. You can then read, share, rate or even email your favorite blogs to friends and family. No more jumping from site to site or forgetting to check web sites for your favorite content.
RSS Feeds
Simply put, RSS feeds are links that provide information about frequently updated works. They can be used for many things (news headlines, audio, video), but are synonymous with blogs. When you visit a site and see the RSS logo (the orange and white box at the top of today’s blog), you can simply click on the link and add the feed to your favorite program, like Google Reader. Our site JumpstartMyPC.com has had this available since our first blog post (see image below), and now you know what it is used for.
Take some time today to set up Google Reader and add the JumpstartMyPC.com blog. Then search for some other blogs that you might interest you. You can use the search in Google Reader or one of the many blog directories that exist on the web (see below). Now, when you are surfing around the web and find a page you like, you can bookmark it or, if it’s a blog, you can simply add it to your Reader via the RSS feed.
Blog Directories
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Tags: Articles, blog, Blog Directories, Blogs, Google, Reader
