Blog, as the term “weblog” is known to us, is one of the most popular means for the netizens to reach out and connect to each other in a never before way. “Weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997, whereas, Peter Merholz split the term to extract the name “blog” in 1999.
Blogs are usually similar to websites, which are mostly maintained by a person on a regular basis. The person can be anyone from a celebrity, a politician, a socialite or an ordinary person. And the most fascinating part of blogging is that anyone can write anything on his or her blog. The content of the blogs mainly range from annotations on any current incident, to any daily life event, or any personal feelings. Blogging or blog posting or online diaries; they are shown putting the last postings at the top with older postings below it and the readers are encouraged to leave their comments on the particular posting.
Researches have shown two parameters to add to a particular blog’s popularity. The first is the popularity through the means of references and the second is the blogrolls, i.e. the recognition through membership. However, permalinks are more prompt to make a blog popular. Technorati and Alexa Internet are the two judges for ranking the popularity of the blogs, and according to the former, the blog which had highest number of links in August, 2006, was of Xu Jinglei, a Chinese actress. It attracted over 50 million visitors and was crowned as the most popular blog around the world. Duncan Black (aka Atrios), Glenn Reynolds (aka Instapundit) and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (aka Daily Kos) are some of the most famous bloggers who have alos appeared in the electronic media.
The marginal dialects that find it very hard to get sponsors to back them have got good chance to interact with their few and scattered speakers through the means of blogging. One such example is the Gaelic Languages. Blogs have also made their place in being the theme of books, which are known as “blooks”. Lulu Booker Prize has been started to choose the best from the blog-oriented books, but the outcome is not that impressive, save for blogger Tucker Max.
However, blogs are not free from cons. A number of legal actions have been taken against the bloggers for allegations of slander and sedition. The governments of different countries are taking legal steps and some are mandating the registration of the bloggers to help fight this menace. However, the ISPs are unaffected by this ceiling. Some employees all around the world have bore the brunt of blogging about their workplaces by losing their jobs and getting sued. And some have been accused and sentenced variably for their anti-government or anti-religious blog-posts. Cyberstalking and internet homicide are the two terms that can define how a blogger can be threatened and subjected to abuse by the “internet trolls”. While the anonymity of the blogger is very fragile, the same anonymity can hide the unidentifiable abuser on the internet. But some code of conduct has been formulated to control this.