A ?Blog? is an abbreviation for web-log. A blog thus is a website that has entries pertaining to a particular topic/ subject or a person, similar to a journal or a diary. The contents of a blog are generally displayed in the reverse chronological order in order to display the latest entries made.



Blogs normally deal with a single subject and provide latest news, commentary or opinions on the subject. The subjects could be as diverse as food, politics, Alaskan fishing or Japanese pearls. Contents of blog can also be as diverse and normally consist of images, text, links to other blogs or websites and anything related to the topic. Most blogs consist of text; however, many blogs also focus on images (photoblogs), videos (vlogs) and audio content (podcasts).

Popularity of Blogs

Of late, blogs have become the most sought after by internet marketing professionals to get their wares across or to describe their products in detail. Many global service industries use blogging as a tool to enhance and distribute information of their services by requesting their clients to put up their comments on their services. This helps them to market their services through word-of-mouth publicity at the same time distributing relevant and information from the client's experiences.

Professionals on the move and jet setters who travel the world can find a lot of information built into blogs especially relevant information that may not be available in a standard printed travel brochure. First hand information on a location can come in great use to a regular traveler, especially if it concerns local travel, hotel and food information and local weather information. These facts have facilitated the popularity of travel blogs across the world.

Downsides

However, a downside of blogsploitation has been observed and all facts that are put up on blogs can result in being nearer to fiction. Blosploitation has resulted because of the use of blogs as advertising media. For example, as a writer some travel company has paid me to write blog entries about probably Shanghai, Abu Dhabi and Fiji Islands, I would be able to write them with ease, but as a person that has never been to these places, I might be far removed form facts. These blog entries that I pen will be posted on blogs solely for marketing the travel company and people who read them may be misled into believing everything that is said there.

How to use a Blog

It is important to check the credentials of the writer before you draw inferences from the blog entries. One traveler's dream vacation rental may be another's mosquito-infested hut. Search and check the profile pages of the person who made the blog entry for travel experiences and personal traits.

Do not depend on a single blog for information. Use the indispensable Google tool, blogsearch.google.com to find alternate blogs for the subject. Many blog entries make tall claims but probably they never live up to it.

How to make a blog

There are various ways for making your own blog. Creation and maintenance of blogs is very easy and even free at times. A host of blogging software is available to be installed on your web server and start off. Managing the software is absolutely almost nil, there are a host of dedicated web application achieve this. Many systems are available where one does not even need a web server, and a blog can be created from any nook and corner of the globe. Tools like Elicit, w blogger and Ecto facilitate users to have a web hosted blog and even compose and edit posts offline. Many a website is offering blog creation tools and blog hosting facilities like tripod, AOL, Google and Yahoo 3600. Custom blogging tools can be created using server side scripting with password protection and management built in.