What is a blog?

Some friends asked this question today in a forum I read. So, I went looking for the answer. I found a great definition here with some links. To quote:

blog

Definition

A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.

Information

A blog is often a mixture of what is happening in a person’s life and what is happening on the Web, a kind of hybrid diary/guide site, although there are as many unique types of blogs as there are people.

People maintained blogs long before the term was coined, but the trend gained momentum with the introduction of automated published systems, most notably Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and accelerate the publishing process.

Blogs are alternatively called web logs or weblogs. However, “blog” seems less likely to cause confusion, as “web log” can also mean a server’s log files.

Synonyms

web log

weblog

If you want to create a blog for yourself according to news.com the popular blogging site, Blogger.com, is giving users their advanced features for free. It was for fee up until this announcement.