Believing Lotsa Other's Good Stuff (BLOGS)

This morning, one of my friends announced that she has started a blog. It made me think about how many blogs I have started looking at because my friends are blogging. Not only that, but how many people I have gotten to know simply because of a blog someone might have pointed me to.

What is a blog? This is what Wikipedia has to say about them:

A blog (a blend of the term web log) is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.

As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.

One hundred and fifty six million? When did this phenomenon take off like this? I guess there were/are a lot of people like me who have been listening to the voices in their head for so long that this was the place to give them their own voice. For a few years in the 1980's I was a technical columnist and perhaps the internal blog started then. I would often find myself walking down the street (or in some other rather mundane circumstance) writing my next column in my head. These were the days before PDA's, laptops, or smart phones, so the notes stayed in my head until I was in front of my computer and able to start (or continue) the process of writing my column. The habit continues and I often "write a column" in my head about many different and varied subjects.

In the last few months I have learned about living in the country (with teenagers), self publishing, and cooking (among other things). I discovered that Jack thinks that 9-1-1 was poorly thought out, Erica is a tech geek and Mickey fan (okay, so I knew that before she started blogging), and what Kerri's husband wants when he does the dishes. And so many other things!

But you have to know about a blog before you can start reading it. So if you have a blog, here is your chance to let people know about it. I know, etiquette generally forbids you from promoting your blog on someone else's, but for one time only, I am offering all bloggers the chance for a mention here. In the comment area below, share your blog's URL address and a short description of what you blog about.

And while you are here, how about officially joining the people who read this blog. (See the side bar - under MEMBERS - for your chance.)

Nice to see you here.