Talking about blogging

Mike has posted a good question as a comment on my previous — and up to now only —post on this blog. He asks “What if the difference between a blog and a website?”

That made me think. Googling the question came up with 8,300 answers, most of them different, probably. Some say it is the software, others that it is what you do. So here goes.

A weblog — blog for short — is what it says, a log, as in logbook, kept on the web. It is a series of entries like a diary but with the latest entry at the beginning rather than at the end as it would be in a paper diary.

The other big difference is that while a diary is generally secret thoughts shielded from others, a blog is intended to be read and commented on by others. The others may be friends and family or a much wider audience.

Some, as Mike has found out, are discovering that a blog is helping their businesses. Blogs, because of the software, are Google friendly — search engine optimised in the jargon — in a way which is difficult to achieve if you run-up a website in Front Page.

And yes, you can use blog software to create what looks very much like a conventional website. A photographer can have pages with details of the business, galleries and whatever else is wanted.

One of the great things about a blog is that you can have a conversation with visitors who post comments. So any more questions before next Wednesday will be very welcome. If I don’t answer them in the blog I will try to at the meeting. The time and place are here.