Blog

Blog

Overview

A blog (short for web log) is a type of website, or part of a website, with frequently updated content that is displayed in reverse chronological order (i.e., newest items first). Blogs typically provide news or commentary on specific subjects. The term "blog" can also be used as verb to refer to adding content to a blog.

Strengths

Unlike typical websites, blogs are very easy to update. This encourages more frequent exchange of information and can make a website a more powerful tool for regular communication. Virtually all blogs also have web feeds (also known as news feeds or rss feeds) which allow other websites to automatically bring together content from multiple related blogs.

Weaknesses

While presenting the latest content items first is ideal for regular website visitors, less frequent visitors looking for general information can be intimidated by the large amount of content on most blogs. For this reason, many websites include blogs as only part of the overall site.

Examples

The Nebraska Bird Partnership (http://www.nebraskabirds.org/) uses a blog to share news and information about bird conservation in Nebraska. Conservation Maven (http://www.conservationmaven.com) uses a blog to profile conservation studies, field news, books, and funding opportunities. The Southeast Partners in Flight website (http://sepif.org) uses the blog format to share a large variety of news and information with conservation practitioners.

Tutorials

Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/), one of the most popular websites for hosting blogs, has a tutorial on setting up a blog with their website here: http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g 

Further reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

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