Blog is short for weB LOG and is a web page containing a written journal of the writer’s (blogger’s) entries. These entries are called posts and are usually arranged chronologically (most recent at top) and represent the blogger’s thoughts, ideas, criticisms, praises, musings and virtually any remark about anything. New posts typically are added frequently: weekly, daily or even hourly. Much interest can be generated in these posts because in most blogs the readers are allowed to leave comments about the post. And other readers can leave comments about the comments, and the blogger can reply (or not) to the comments, and on and on.

Because of this interaction, extensive world-wide networking in a particular blog can be built up. This networking can be focused on world events, sports, politics, religion, technology, hobbies, humor, health, exercise, personal issues or whatever the blogger’s interests, mind set, desires and the like are. In short, a blog is whatever the blogger makes it, since usually he, she or they retain the ability to choose which comments are posted and thereby direct the focus of the blog and in large part the success or failure of a blog.

For example, in a personal blog, the author may relate the activities of his or her family. A post might read "I have to go now to drive Sarah to her choir practice. I love staying at practice for a few minutes to listen because the all-girls choir has such a wonderful sound. I wish I had joined one back when I was that age." And then a comment from a reader might be posted "I feel the same way about piano now." From here might grow a whole network (blogosphere) about music lessons for children.

Blog web pages can be plain or fancy and laid out and decorated to suit the tastes of the blogger. In addition, pictures, videos and music can be added to the blog page as well as links to other blogs or web sites.

News blogs are common with local news media (radio, TV, newspapers) creating blogs written by listeners, viewers or readers to cover news and views from surrounding communities, serving as both news source and "letters to the editor." Media personalities may have blogs as well.

Commercial or corporate blogs are often used to announce new products, push current sales items or gather comments from product users. Some of these blogs have been subject to abuse by comments contributed by fake users praising products or services, when in fact the comments were provided by the company itself or its advertising agencies.

Blog searching is made easy by sites such as www.blogsearch.google.com or www.technorati.com where you can enter a keyword of your subject of interest to find compatible blogs. Since the layout and content of blogs is quite variable, sometimes it becomes confusing as to just what constitutes the posts, comments, sales pitches, links and such. Eventually you’ll zero in on sites you understand and that interest you. There are more than 100 million blogs out there, so you should be able to find a few that are just right for your interests.

If you can’t find a blog that interests you, do what so many others have done: start your own blog. Web sites such as www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com will host your blog free. In addition, they provide the tools to set up your site with one of the many templates available. Some limited customization is available in the free sites; however, your site will come complete with ads (its free remember, so someone has to pay the piper). For a fee, a site such as www.typepad.com will also host your blog and give you more flexibility in page layout and fewer ads.

Those who are more tech-savvy can buy software to create their own blog and pay for a host to provide the servers to connect to the Internet. In this way they get the most control over their blog and have no ads, unless you want to sell ad space for a little extra income.

The free or for-fee blog web sites allow you to choose a blog name and ask you for keywords and categories to describe your site. This information will be added to the host’s web site search capabilities, and eventually your site may appear on searches from the search engines (Google, Yahoo, and the like). In this way, others of similar interests can find you and blog away about life, liberty and the pursuit . . . If you choose to do it yourself, getting noticed may be harder and require you to take on links to other recognized blogs. Linking is one way the search engines can find you and include you in indexes they use for searching.

Once you have your own blog, updating it frequently is one way to keep it interesting and get readers to keep coming back and commenting. Even though you can exercise some control over which comments are posted and which discarded, if you discard too many, those readers may go elsewhere where they can be "heard." It’s also best to check out other blogs containing similar types of interest and that seem to be close to your gestalt and then add links to those blogs from your site. This also helps the search engines find you. And remember, a blog is what you make it.

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