A few weeks ago a number of us participated in an ongoing discussion that started off with a rejection of the term "blog" but ended up with a nice summary of a blog's characteristics. Oddly enough, Boris Mann of Bryght was having very similar thoughts just a few months previous:
...I tend to define a blog by its features and functionality. These generally include:
- Easy web publishing: unlike static individual HTML pages of the past, all blog tools allow for the easy creation, editing, and publishing of web content
- Content in reverse chronological order: the newest information is at the top
- Each piece of content has a unique URL: (also called a permalink) this means that every piece of content can be directly linked to, and directly quoted/discussed
- Interactive: comments, trackback, or some other form of interactivity is supported directly
- Syndicated content: a weblog outputs its content in a feed of one or more syndication formats, like RSS; this allows for notification of new content (e.g. subscribe to the feed instead of manually checking the page for changes) as well as aggregation (e.g. show content from other sites in multiple places, all linking back to the original)
Boris also has a concise summary of a blog's primary benefits in a business environment:
- Search Engine Ranking: the inherent characteristics of blogs lead to "organic" search engine optimization, resulting in high rankings for topics that are covered
- Promotion: whether it be an individual, company, product, service, or brand, blogging about it will help to promote it
- Interaction: a blog facilitates easy interaction through comments and the interconnected nature of online conversations; this makes it a good tool to communicate with customers, connect with other people in your industry, and put a "human" face on a business.
Best of all, Boris pays explicit tribute to the Blogfathers: Levine, Locke, Searls and Weinberger:
A lot of the concepts of a wider, more open marketplace based on communication, conversation, and collaboration was written about in 1999's Cluetrain Manifesto. Today's tools, such as blogs and wikis, are supporting many of the concepts described in that book.
A gross understatement, but accurate nonetheless.
As a bonus, Boris also points to an old but still very useful post by Roland Tanglao on the technical distinctions between blogs and other sites, that includes a nifty diagram. Roland's money quote:
[Blogs'] 'magic sauce' is the RSS file and the pings and the fact that blog systems automate the tedium of archiving, constructing HTML pages and linking them together.
