Introduction

A big trend

In this information technology age, a development of various technologies has come into place and is still going on with one of these technologies providing connections into the internet world. Blogs have come into place with a lot of people getting involved to express their self which has become a social phenomenon and according to Microsoft, the number of those in Asia alone showing half of the people who go online, blogs. Blogs has grown and gained popularity around the year 2000 (Ng, 2007) which blogs are now used for a source of income, which blogs operators are making money out of advertisements.
The word ‘blog’…
Blog comes from the word web log which is an online journal that readers can give their feedbacks to. Feedbacks of comments and critiques to the article by the writer can be observed and read, which is more like a forum and discussion. Designers of blogs often decorate and post their own writing

Blog types

When the word blog is typed, we can come across different type of blogs which has its classification under few categories. With 70 million blogs out there as of April 2007, there is a lot of category for blogs which new technology are pushing new limits and discovery of human wants. Blogs with texts and images are ahead of the pact but there are more blogs appearing as technological advances holds no barrier to new frontier:

Blog types:

Personal blogs, Act as a journal, where one can put anything inside a blog.
Corporate blogs, Act as a communication between the company and customers, to get their feedbacks, disseminate product information.
Topical blog, (Special interest blogs) Talks about their interest

Blog Content

Media,
Vlog, Video blog
Linklog, Link to other sites
Sketchblog, Portfolio or sketches
Photoblog, A blog consists of photos
Tumblelogs, A mixture of media

Device
Moblogs, Blogs for mobilephones

Genre
Political blogs,
Travel blogs,
Fashion blogs,
Project blogs
Splog, (Spamfest)
Food Blogs.

Online vs. Print

Design for both differs due to limitations, especially for print, the layout and the content is more limited compared to online designs because online is not as limited as print. But then again, print is more tangible - to compare which is better. People tend to read 25 per cent slower online; hence a website cannot be as long as the print design (Nielsen, 2007). But on the other hand, taking a flyer for an example, it is cheaper to publish online then to print as it is cheaper and one can put more information. Writing in the web should be concise, objective and scannable (Nielsen, 1997).


References

Nielsen, J, 1997. How Users Read on the Web. Viewed on 4 June 2007 at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Nielsen, J 2007, ‘Writing for web’, viewed 4 June 2007 at http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/

Microsoft, 2006. Blogging Phenomenon Sweeps Asia. Viewed on 4 June 2007 at http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-28-2006/0004480819&EDATE=
Ng, D 2007, What are blogs?, viewed on 4 June 2007 at http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-blogs.htm
What is blog?, viewed 4 June 2007 at http://www.blogscanada.ca/BlogDefinition.html

The Guardian, 2007, ‘Blogs mark the first 10 years’, viewed on 4 June 2007 at http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2051882,00.html