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=Blogs -- what they are; how to find them; some best-of categories = **Warning**: There are **112 million blogs** out there!!!

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 "A **blog** (a contraction of the term "**Web log**") is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in **reverse-chronological order**. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning //to maintain or add content to a blog//. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. **The ability for readers to leave comments** in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs... Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine [|Technorati] was tracking more than 112 million blogs."(1)

Blogger (owned by Google) has a shorter definition: "A **blog** is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more." Mr. M., our Academic Technology Coordinator, suggests these nifty videos on YouTube to help us get at what a blog really is.

A recent [|article] in Scientific American posits that blogging ( along with other forms of personal expression) is therapeutic.

You don't want to have search through 112 million blogs to find the good ones, do you? (you can use [|Google Blog Search] if you really want to do this). Let's take a look at some sites that compile blogs of note, award blog prizes, or provide selective directories of blogs by subject area.

In rough order from the larger directories to smaller, more whimsical or specialized groupings, here are some sites to browse when thinking about the blog you would like to follow (a list of other blogs on one's on blog is called a //blogroll//):

>  1. "Blog." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 26 Aug 2008, 19:54 UTC. 27 Aug 2008 .
 * 1) Technorati's [|Top 100 blogs] (Technorati indexes all sorts of blogs, not just tech blogs)
 * 2) [|Blogs of Note] compiled by the editors of Blogger (owned by Google)
 * 3) Forbes Magazine's [|Best of the WEb: Blogs] 
 * 4) The [|Bloggie Awards] (2008 edition)
 * 5) //Arts & Letters Daily// links to some of the [|best wonky blogs], read and discussed by working academics (look on the left side of the page)
 * 6) Blogs maintained by artists and writers from [|The New Yorker]
 * 1)  The //Guardian//'s (a GREAT UK newspaper) [|top 10 blogs about books]