Log in to the blogosphere

How about a space in the web exclusively for you to write, express joy, vent anger, voice views and maintain a diary, in short? Enter the world of blogs

Photo : Bijoy Ghosh

This column will explore a new realm of writing over the next four weeks: the galaxy of the blogosphere.

A blog is often an online chronicle of an individual’s life. The first blog was born in 1994 when a college student named Justin Hall decided to maintain a web-based diary of his experiences called  Justin’s Links from the Underground . More people took to the Internet and started to write the stories of their lives. These came to be known as “weblogs” in 1997 which became shortened to “blogs.”

In these times, only those who knew the computer language and had the skills to set up a blog could do so. As a result, there was no diversity of voices. This changed when Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan launched www.blogger.com, a website that allowed users to create and host their own blogs in 1999. There was an explosion in the space after this. Another site, www.wordpress.com, which was set up in 2003 had several new features on offer for users.

The phenomenon caught on The blogging phenomenon caught on among the media industry when  The Charlotte Observer  sent out a team of journalists and photographers to cover the spread and effect of Hurricane Bonnie in 1998. Their coverage was the most up-to-date and detailed in the area. However, they lost time in getting the news out as the papers would reach the reader only the next day. Thus, they didn’t have an edge over their competitors.

In order to come out on top, they did something that hadn’t been done in mainstream news before: they started a blog which reported their stories as and when the journalists wrote them. Dispatches were sent from the field and readers were kept posted on the hurricane’s path and damage. This gave the staff of  The Observer  a lead over their competitors. This model was soon emulated by other newspapers.

Making money out of blogs

Another significant development that occurred in 2003 is that internet company Google introduced 

AdSense  which allowed bloggers to generate some money from the content that they had written on their blogs. After this, there were several hundred blogs which dealt with providing information on how one can earn from a blog.

The star of the blog was on the rise with political candidates setting up blogs to express their points of view on various issues. Bloggers also helped provide perspective to topics that were in the news by putting forth their thoughts in the “comments” section.

Interestingly, in 2011, Tom Knighton, owner of Knighton Media, Inc (a company formed to manage the blog  Laws-n-Sausages ), announced that his company was purchasing  The Albany Journal . This was the first known time that a blog had purchased a newspaper anywhere in the world. Most companies now maintain blogs to update their customers on what’s new at their end.

Medium.com, Ghost.org, and Tumblr.com are a few websites that are popular with people looking to write blogs today. Tumblr was the first site to provide the option of writing posts in different sizes unlike the extant one-size-fits-all format. Another service, Posterous, allows users to set up blogs via email.

Online visibility In combination with social networking sites like Facebook and microblogging sites like Twitter, blogs are integral to providing an individual with online visibility. Celebrities now have accounts in each of these domains in order to connect better with their fans. Author Neil Gaiman, for instance, is active in all three areas. Author/bureaucrat-turned-Indian politician Shashi Tharoor has a Facebook news feed that is filled with pictures taken either with fans, other celebrities, or important political personalities. He often voices his views on different subjects in this space as well sparking off debates and discussions among his followers.

Have you already got a story that you want to tell the world? Set up a blog today! Over the next four weeks, this column will look at how to write a blog, the different types of blogs, and popular local blogs. Do send us your feedback at naresh.blps@gmail.com