Web logs. Or, weblogs, or ‘blogs. Whatever you’d like to call them, they are here in spades. There are so many weblogs out there that there there are directories of weblogs and directories of directories of weblogs. I’m quite fond a a few of them, metafilter, camworld, and more… But, what exactly in the hell are they? Everyone has long and complicated definitions of what weblogs are and what they mean to the internet, since they are so very hip right now and all. I’ve actually had people refer to this site as my weblog. Now that’s a stretch…. (hehe) It could be easy call blogger the first “Killer App.” (god I hate that expression) of the year. But, what the hell exactly can one do with one of these:
- Generate content? (yes… that’s good. there is far, far too little of that
these days). - Document the web for posterity? (well, yes… but, why use your resources
to store stuff, when you have the entire internet to store stuff, oh well…). - Update it frequently so as to promote constant updates, refreshing content,
and reflect a current state of awareness? (yes, but it’s also cool for hooking
visitors for return trips). - Build it so that there is user interaction? Like a BBS/USENET sytle, threaded
discussion forum, or perhaps a mailing list? (sure, but the forums tend to
be soap box, flame war grounds. There are a lot of people that seem to just
talk to themselves, not one another.)
Oh yeah, one last thing. I like blogger an awful lot, but what the hell does it do that I can’t do with a text editor? Oh, hell usability enhancement… I keep forgetting about that. Oh well, enough said about that.