The Blogosphere

Blogging has developed into a popular way for people to publish content online. A blog is simply a set of Web pages that are often written in a diary-like form. People writing blogs typically comment on current events, their lives, new ideas and gadgets, trends, ongoing news stories, and any number of topics.

Major Blog Sites / Services

• blogger: blog hosting service affiliated with Google; started in 1999
• xanga: weblog hosting and social networking
• wordpress: blogging service
• livejournal: blogging service
• typepad: blogging service
• drupal.org: an open source content management platform that can be used for creating blogs as well as other kinds of Web sites
• Social Networks: Many online social networks offer blogs as part of member services

Find Blogs

• Blogarama: blog directory and resource collection
• Bloglines: search for feeds, blogs
• Metroblogging: City-specific blogs

Search Blog Posts

• Technorati: searches posts from millions of blogs
• Google Blogsearch: searches blogs for blog content or blog topic
• Feedster: searches syndicated sources (including blogs and news)
• IceRocket: searches blogs and social net spaces

Blog News and Stats

• Blog Herald: blogging-related news
• BlogPulse: Intelliseek's blog trend analysis site
• Scripting News: David Winer's blog (notable blogger, author of RSS)

Blog Rankings

• Technorati Top: popular blogs as measured by unique links
• Bloglines top: ranked by feed
• TBL list: Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem list of popular blogs

Further Reading

• Studying Blogs: some comments on Blogs, a short list of articles examining blogs, and links to further information
• Wikipedia entry for blog: introductory information about blogs
• Dmoz Index: directory of information on blogs

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