Youtube video BLOGS IN PLAIN ENGLISH
BLOG--
Lewis Carroll, author of the portmanteau riddled Jabberwocky poem and of Alice
in Wonderland fame, would be very happy with this term. A portmanteau is when you take parts from two or more words and use them to blend together a
new word. For example breakfast and lunch becomes brunch. In this case, the words web log are being blended together to form the word blog.
Blogs hit a growing streak in the early 90s with the
introduction of web publishing tools that allowed people with no knowledge of
HTML and FTP, the languages used to design websites, to start creating their own content. Typical types of blogs are personal blogs
which a very similar to an open diary or journal; organizational blogs which
relay information to members or employees; genre blogs which would be about
specific topics like fashion or parenting; and media type which would be
composed of only videos, links, or images (the cheeseburger network has somegreat ones!).
The two most common blogging sites are Wordpress and Blogger (we use Blogger).
Both allow you to create free blogs and they have different features. Microblogging
has some of the same characteristics of a traditional blog like text, images,
or videos; but it is smaller and given in brief snippets like a link or photo
with caption. Tumblr is quickly gaining popularity with this simple type of format
for posting. Even Twitter and Facebook can be considered forms of
microblogging.
Blogs are typically run by a few individuals with common
interests. No Flying No Tights is a comic and graphic novel review website that
is run by librarians. The Krazy Coupon Lady is all about extreme couponing. TechCrunch
and Mashable are both about technology like computers and the internet. Many
authors, like Paranormalcy’s KierstenWhite,
host their own blogs that depict personal or professional information about
what their lives as writers or even paying it forward with advice. Over the
years many corporations have seen value in this blogging trend and now host
their own blogs that have more to do with the people whose interest they are
trying to engage than the product they are trying to sell. For example, Totsy, the online retailer
of discounted children’s clothing, hosts a blog with entries about food,
entertaining, parenting, and more.
Once you find a couple blogs you are interested in, it can
get a bit overwhelming trying to keep up with them all. RSS, which is often referred to as Really Simple Syndication, are feeds that
are published by websites that alert you when new information has been
published. RSS Readers like Google Reader will organize your feeds into a
simple format similar to reading an email. You can either manually enter the
blogs URL, or address, onto the service you use or click on the RSS button that
is located on most blogs. Typically this will be a feature that says “Follow”. If
you have a mobile device there are several apps you can use that will organize
all your links together in one place and notify you when they have been
updated. Flipboard is a very popular free app that organizes all your RSS feeds
into a reading format similar to browsing a magazine.
What are some blogs that interest you? Leave a comment below
with the link.
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