How blogs and websites differ

Websites are key elements of the Internet with much of our time on the net spent browsing different sites. However, we also often read blogs on the net or even have our own personal blogs. What are the differences between the two?

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All blogs are websites but not all websites are blogs. Usually businesses will have websites where they provide information to consumers about their products. A huge website is Amazon.com the large online retailer. Blogs on the other hand are often run by individuals . They can serve many purposes sometimes acting as a type of online diary or as a regular commentary on events. Blogs are usually updated with new material regularly whereas a website is often static with information updated only as required.

Websites and Blogs

Wikipedia describes a website as follows: "A website[1] or Web site is a collection of related network web resources, such as web pages, multimedia content, which are typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server. Notable examples are wikipedia.org, google.com, and amazon.com. Websites can have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a website can be a personal website, a corporate website for a company, a government website, an organization website, etc. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, ranging from entertainment and social networking to providing news and education. "

Any device which can connect to the Internet can access a website. These devices would include desktop or laptop computers, tablets, smartphones, or smart TVs.

Wikipedia describes blogs as follows: "A blog (a truncation of the expression "weblog")[1] is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, blogs were usually the work of a single individual,[citation needed] occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."

Unlike many websites blogs usually have a comments section as they are often but not always designed to promote discussion of issues. In the earlier days of the Internet blogs were a fairly clearly defined type of website but nowadays the distinction is perhaps a bit more blurred. Often a business will have a blog as a part of its website in order to discuss issues make announcements or get feedback from its customers.

Twitter is an example of what is called a microblog . A microblog is a blogging platform where the amount of information that can be shared per author is either enforced to be very short, or just typically very short. Twitter entries called tweets are limited at present to 140 characters. Tumblr is another example.

There are many different free website builders that will help build your own website. Here is a link to one. The site ranks and compares the advantages and different advantages of each site. The sites also have paid versions that provide much more in the way of services. A recent list of free blog builder sites are listed at techradar. Some sites are on both lists such as Word Press and Wix.

Published earlier in the Digital Journal