More Blog Thoughts: Kill “Blog”
Another thought about blogs and blogging. One of the major hurdles that many people need to overcome is getting their heads around the idea of a “blog”. “What’s a blog?” is a question I hear on a regular basis when talking to people outside the echo chamber. Maybe we should adopt a term such as “dynamic Web sites” or “Live Web sites” - something that gives people a better idea about how a blog functions.
Update: The 2007 bloggies (what’s a bloggie?) have been announced. As part of the entry requirements, it defines a blog as “a page with dated entries”.
Technorati Tags: Blogs
January 26th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Agreed. “Blog” is a lousy name.
I like your suggestions.
I’d also go for ‘web journal’ or ‘online journal’ since the word journal spans a fairly large spectrum from personal journal to Wall Street Journal, and always implies some kind of chronological content.
January 26th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
It’s 2007 and some people still don’t know what a blog is?
“Ajax” and “Web 2.0″ are already being used as marketing terms to some target audiences. “Live web sites” sounds good, but now that Microsoft is marketing all there web based stuff under the “Live” brand, it might cause unnecessary confusion.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
I’ve actually toyed with the idea of boycotting the word ‘blog’. I don’t know if I could get away with it working for a blogging company though.
January 27th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Don’t you think it’s a little late in the game to be changing the name?
January 27th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I agree the term is terrible but I also agree it is far too late in the game to change it now.
I continue to say the biggest fault of Web 2.0 is the failure of the “echo chamber” to reach out to the masses and provide layman explanations/applications of what they can accomplish. The problem was exacerbated by terms such as “blog” “vlog”, etc. It has had an elitist geek flavour to it.
We’re taking the time to explain/apply it in the small-cap stock space and it is paying off more than I imagined at Mesh last year. We now have companies building online shareholder communities, using Google to drive them there and getting set to launch our first small-cap CEO blog.
Too late to change the name. Still plenty of time to educate and proliferate.
Best,
George
January 29th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
It’s way too late to change the game, and really there is no need. A blog is a Web Log. A log of your thoughts, videos, pictures, what have you, arranged chronologically on the web. It’s certainly not a “dynamic website” - that is blurring waaay too many lines between dynamic applications and a WYSIWYG.
We’re weblogging, and personally, I appreciate the short hand. If there are awards named “bloggies” and Google’s free service is called “blogger” and you can search using Google Blog Search, me thinks we’re past the tipping point here in terms of the name.
George - not sure where blogging = web 2.0/ Ajax comes from, blogging has been around since at least 2000… right about the time of the 1.0 crash. Blogs themselves can evolve to include Web 2.0 apps, but the two are not mutually inclusive.
Cheers,
Tamera