'Blog' top word of the year

Merriam-Webster's says four-letter term was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year.

The story "'Blog' top word of the year" published November 30, 2004 at 4:48 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[Prndll]

Old and new media???

Yea right!!!!!!

The word "BLOG" is nothing more than the current buzz word. What a blog is is nothing but the same thing that everything else is. The source code is the same, the content is the same, it's all the same....just called something differant. There is NO differance between a blog and a newsletter or a blog and the thing you are (right now) reading. I could copy and paste this same text from here into a "blog" and everything would still be the exact same. Blogs are web logs......the very nature of computers is to keep "weblogs". This is NOTHING new. I have seen blogs and I have seen everything else.....there just is no differance. I may as well look at this very post as a blog or even the story I'm commenting about...that's a blog too.

Come on! this entire website...CNET News.com.....is one great big blog.

We NEED honesty here.....the internet has too many people trying to push for user ignorance. A spade is a spade and can be nothing else but a spade.

What about the old days of BBS....by definition....they were blogs as well.......

well..

People like to describe new software as 'new technology'. Or people that use HTML and Javascript, or even more laughably, they use very simple wysiwyg editors, and declare themselves to be computer programmers. Both are similar to the blog thing.

To most people, computers are mystical objects, and don't have the slightest clue about how they really work. So for the average user, things that aren't look new to them. After all, many people consider that know how to install drivers and maybe be able to put in new memory or other piece of hardware to be computer geeks.

[David Arbogast]

Agreed

Suddenly, lots of people have personal web sites where they hang their opinions. They call them blogs, and everybody thinks new technology has been introduced. Syndication methods for blogs may be new... but they weren't identified as new technologies. And honestly, "blog" is a common word? Among what crowds? Geeks and web newbies, maybe... None of my relatives have any clue what a "blog" is. And how do you explain it to people who don't understand?? "Its... a web site that somebody updates with their opinion on a regular basis." OOHHHH a "Web Site." Nothing new.

[lantzilla]

Disagree

I think you are over-simplifying things. Yes, any type of web-based content as you put it might be considered a blog, but some new things are:

- The ability for just about any schmo to sign up with Typepad and in minutes be up and running.
- The ability of any schmo (without HTML experience) to have a voice that is at the same level (in terms of accessibility) as any mainstream press.
- The power and control is in the hands of individuals instead of institutions. The means of production is transferred to the common person.
- The promotion and aggregation of said content through indexing services such as technorati and blogdex.
- The propagation and syndication using standard technologies such as RSS and Atom, which are now incorporated in services such as My Yahoo. My friends' blogs and the New York Times sit at the same level on My Yahoo!

Regarding the "mystic" nature of computers that Just Me describes, you are correct, and most non-geeks could give a rat's ass about computers. Since blogs focus on individual (rather than institutional) opinions, common people might consider blogs more relatable. We (as geeks) need to understand the perspective of non-geeks and understand that they want some humanity in their computing. Computing for computing's sake is pointless.