Blog Definition and 58 Threads

A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
The emergence and growth of blogs in the late 1990s coincided with the advent of web publishing tools that facilitated the posting of content by non-technical users who did not have much experience with HTML or computer programming. Previously, a knowledge of such technologies as HTML and File Transfer Protocol had been required to publish content on the Web, and early Web users therefore tended to be hackers and computer enthusiasts. In the 2010s, the majority are interactive Web 2.0 websites, allowing visitors to leave online comments, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking service. Indeed, bloggers not only produce content to post on their blogs but also often build social relations with their readers and other bloggers. However, there are high-readership blogs which do not allow comments.
Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject or topic, ranging from philosophy, religion, and arts to science, politics, and sports. Others function as more personal online diaries or online brand advertising of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, digital images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave publicly viewable comments, and interact with other commenters, is an important contribution to the popularity of many blogs. However, blog owners or authors often moderate and filter online comments to remove hate speech or other offensive content. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blogs), photographs (photoblogs), videos (video blogs or "vlogs"), music (MP3 blogs), and audio (podcasts). In education, blogs can be used as instructional resources; these are referred to as edublogs. Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.
'Blog' and 'blogging' are now loosely used for content creation and sharing on social media, especially when the content is long-form and one creates and shares content on regular basis. So, one could be maintaining a blog on Facebook or blogging on Instagram.
On February 16, 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.
On February 20, 2014, there were around 172 million Tumblr and 75.8 million WordPress blogs in existence worldwide. According to critics and other bloggers, Blogger is the most popular blogging service used today. However, Blogger does not offer public statistics. Technorati lists 1.3 million blogs as of February 22, 2014.

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  1. marcus

    Shtetl-optimized, an attractive blog

    http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/ see what you think, I think he writes well and has original thoughts. sometimes the topics are related to quantum gravity scott aaronson is in computing, at Waterloo, incidentally where Perimeter is but no connection AFAIK
  2. K

    Start Your Own Physics Blog - Read Dimi's Story

    Hiya, I'm a rather avid reader of physics blogs. For a while I've contemplated starting my own, and starting my last year of uni presented me with an exellent excuse. Check it out at http://stringschool.blogspot.com/ If anyone of you is wondering what the life of an ordinary physics...
  3. L

    Blog idea - What Physicists Do - Opinions?

    I was thinking about creating a blog that would make regular posts about what a particular physicist does. The aim would be to provide a resource that would show how diverse the areas of physics study are, give details on what physics is being done and provide a little insight into what...
  4. S

    News Legislatory causes controversy 'coz of blog

    Interesting story: http://billhobbs.com/hobbsonline/005723.html
  5. marcus

    RealClimate: Climate Science from Climate Scientists

    http://www.realclimate.org/
  6. T

    News Is This the Best Iraqi Blog of 2004?

    A blog created by a real Iraqi who is really in Iraq. The blog is a nominee for 'Best Blogs 2004' by the Washington Post. Interesting stories. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
  7. T

    News The Blog post that started Memogate (LINK)

    The discovery of the document fraud as it happened! Scroll down to post 47, which shows the initial 09/08/2004 discovery that something is amiss with the CBS docs – The poster is a lawyer who goes by the Internet moniker "Buckhead." I assume "Buckhead" is now a conservative internet legend. Go...
  8. S

    Peter Woit's Blog: Good Stuff, Not Too Hard on String Theory

    Peter Woit has a blog! . Much good stuff, not too hard on string theory, plus check out his links.
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