|
A website that records and analyses
events, usually on a particular subject or containing items with a common
theme. Now often known as blogs, in their simplest forms weblogs are not
much more than online diaries of individual activities or ideas, but as
their scope broadens they can become considerably more interesting and
useful. Good weblogs are detailed and fascinating chronicles of their chosen
subject, and typically include articles or analysis written by the website
owner, links to and comments on other websites and extensive contributions
by the community of visitors to the site.
The weblog phenomenon has
grown immensely in the last couple of years, and many companies now offer
blogging software and hosting services, often for free. Cynics have
suggested that bloggers, as they are known, are at best exhibitionists and
at worst vanity publishers with, in the vast majority of cases, nothing
remotely useful or interesting to say. This is yet another use of the web
for pointless and self-indulgent purposes, they say. Bloggers claim that
weblogs are a unique and valuable cultural resource that allows people's
ideas and creativity to be expressed for all to see. Whatever the general
truth of this, there are some exceptions that seem to have caught the
imagination of a great many readers. Some weblogs have become rich and
complex resources, and are visited by many thousands of people every day.
Others are sufficiently quirky or interesting to attract the attention of
more mainstream media. An example is pepysdiary.com, a 21st-century
manifestation of Samuel Pepys's diary. |
