Blogging,
or "web logs," are the latest rage among the
Internet community. Growing out of message boards
and chat rooms, blogging takes interactivity to a
new level. Web bloggers typically create blog sites
on a particular topic -- politics, hobbies,
Star
Trek, you name it, there's a blog for it -- post
daily blog entries, much like journals or diary
entries, and invite comment and feedback. Blogs are
an outgrowth of news feeder sites, which syndicate
news and other information to your PC on demand.
A strong blog might get thousands of
entries a day, and of course, the usual features and
problems of the older message boards, chat systems,
and BBSes can crop up. Many, many public figures
have blogs of one sort or another, which makes it
easy to talk to, say, your favorite politician or
entertainer -- if they actually visit their own
blogs. If not, you can talk to other fans or
participants. Corporations and colleges are using
blog technology to supplant or extend face-to-face
conferences and even virtual meetings and IMs. As
you might expect, most blogs are personal. It's
cheap and easy to set up a blog; what it demands is
your time. Most, but not all, blogs use RSS (Really
Simple Syndication, an XML-based method of providing
content feeds). While there are many ways to set up
your own blog, here are four of the most widely
used. All of the providers below have varying set
amounts of bandwidth and Web space.
Blogger. Probably the largest and most
well-known blogging tool around. Google recently
acquired Blogger, and has added a blog button to its
Toolbar. The free version is easy to use, but only
offers text support -- no graphics and very limited
community features. Blogger Pro offers photo
posting, e-mail posting, and RSS links. Blogger
entries are by default hosted on the Blogspot
servers, and usually feature a URL along the lines
of myblog.blogspot.com/. Free accounts are
ad-supported. Picasa's Hello photo-posting site
works with Blogger for the photo mavens out there.
LiveJournal. An elegantly simple blog tool.
The only way to obtain a free account is to get an
account from an existing member; this, according to
the company, keeps the community more integrated and
discourages random abuse. The free version is
text-only, but accepts user comments, a prerequisite
for any real blogging.
Lycos Blog Builder. No free offering, but a
powerful blog tool that allows for a nice setup even
by those with no HTML skills. Lots of tools and
options.
Typepad. Excellent, novice-friendly blog
creation site from the makers of Movable Type (www.movabletype.org/),
which powers many blogs. Typepad has learned from
the early mistakes of others, and as a result,
offers a powerful and friendly interface. Comes in
free (Basic) and the pay-to-blog Plus and Pro
versions.
Weblogger. This blog tool has a strong
corporate focus, and isn't the best choice for
personal bloggers. Business users whose company is
willing to pay the relatively steep account fee will
be very happy with the wide range of tools and
features.
You can hunt down blogs of interest
at a number of sites. Blogdigger at
www.blogdigger.com/ is a good place to start;
Complete RSS at www.completerss.com/ is
another, as is Blogdex at blogdex.media.mit.edu.
Want to make your site's content
available via RSS? This is called "syndicating" your
content, and is quite simple. There are several
converters available online that will do the work
for you. All you have to do is type in the address
of your feed, customize a few display options, and
you’re set. A snippet of JavaScript will then be
created for you to paste onto your page. You’ll then
be serving up data from your own Web site. Check out
the converters that are listed below. They have
different functions and display options, so pick the
one that suits you the best. JavaScript RSS Box
Viewer at p3k.org/rss/?setup=true, Cut n’
Paste JavaScript RSS Feed at itde.vccs.edu/rss2js/build.php,
and RSS-to-JavaScript at
www.rss-to-javascript.com/ are all good places
to start.
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