Blog ?? Do you really need it ?

A blog ... Most of my friends ( leaving the geekish guys ) read blogs and hear a lot about them, but do you actually know what it is ?? According to Wikipedia, a Blog is a Web log where entries are written in chronological order and are displayed in the reverse chronological order.

Terminology

Here, there are a few terms used which should be taken as they are intended to.

1. to blog : means to post an article on a blog. The term blog, here is being referred to as a verb

2. blogger : A person who writes articles on a blog.

3. blog post : An article in a blog. This should have been the first term that should have been mentioned in this list.

Past and the Present

Blogging first started out geekishly like email, IRC and like any other service that used the Internet. It was not until 05/06 that companies started to make announcements on blogs which was done at a press meet or a newsletter to a mail list, until then.

Soon blogs meant serious business and as the bigshots started using them for a reason , the common man learnt more about blogs and related issues so that he could stay connected to the world than to wait for some newsletter in his inbox.

Due to this, the over all bloggers, blog services and people who just read blogs increased and Blogs became a source of mass communication in a very economic way where one wouldn't need to spend money or resources but just needed the time to put things out in an effective way.

As an inside story, the people who just read blogs might not know how the information comes from, but as someone who is following blogs since about 4 years, and acquainted with the web since a few more years, I can just tell that this information ‎comes from one person who blogs it in his personal blog, which is followed by many. They in turn blog it on their personal blogs and the information, which started out from a single source moved on to the whole world and within a few hours also makes news on the local news channels.

Companies, CEOs, Tech Developers and a host of other people saw what could be achieved out of blogs and now, what happens is, most of the news are first blogged in abstract and later on the suspense is revealed by making good use of the press.

The companies also make sure that the blog post is written so well that once a user reads it, he should understand something about the product, the company and its plans for the future. People are being hired to write about launch parties, product releases so that the blog attracts readers and attention from all over the world.

Why do you need to Blog ?

This is a question which almost everyone can answer but differently and the surprising part is that, everyone can be right. What am saying is different people have different perspectives on " Why to blog " but what I feel is that, a blog is a way to put down your personal feelings and let everyone know about them.

Now,You can also ask me " why do I need to blog when there is Facebook or Twitter ? ". Indeed that is a right question when you and your friends only can know about what you are thinking. Through facebook or twitter the whole world won't be knowing your views on an issue and definitely friends who dont login into facebook for about 6 hours wont be noticing your status messages. If you have a blog and you start posting regularly, people will start to follow your blog through Google Reader or any other feed and then will start on to know your views and comment on them.

Posting regularly also helps you keep a track of your mind set and when you read the previous posts, you will get to know what you were like then and what are you now. The posts not only help others to get influenced or inspired by from your thoughts, but they also at times help you get inspired by them in case you forgot what you were thinking a long time ago.

Writing posts on a blog help me in the following ways:

1. Got to keep a track of my thought process

2. Also got to know that memories make you smile.

3. Most importantly made me comfortable to in "Writing English"

4. In the process read other blogs, which helped me in knowing little bits and pieces of the Internet which I definitely would have missed.

5. Got to know that you can create sites / blogs but you've got to maintain them once they go online.

Friends, hope you all got to know why to blog and hope you'll soon start off with your own blog. Do let me know then. Always happy to help you guys out.

Will be waiting for your views and comments. Until then Happy Ugadi and Happy Blogging :) :)