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

Long-surviving Opera browser deserves a better market share

From time to time I look at statistics related to my blogs. Today I looked at browser percentage of page views on one of my blogs. Opera was over 40 percent. Over a longer period it runs at about one or two percent.

The statistic does not mean much. Maybe one person using Opera simply read a number of pages, but it piqued my curiosity about the Opera browser and led to my decision to write a short article on it. As compared to other browsers Opera is at present in fifth place on desktops with Chrome being the most popular according to most surveys, with venerable Internet Explorer in second, closely followed by Firefox, the Apple operating system in fourth and then Opera.
 As this article points out calculating the share of the market for each browser is difficult to estimate. Methods used give different results. However, the four different estimates shown here are not that different, except for one company that has Internet Explorer much more popular than any of the other three companies that made estimates. Three out of four estimates have Chrome as the top browser with the highest measurement being almost half 48.7 percent market share earlier in June this year. Opera's share estimate ranges from 1 to 3.2 percent. Opera itself claims to have more than 350 million users globally. However, many of these users are on mobile, 276 million of them as of August this year. Opera not only will operate on many mobile devices but will operate on Apple and Linux operating systems.
 The popularity of browsers varies from one country to the next. In Belarus, Opera is actually the most popular browser. Opera is the second oldest web browser and was launched in 1996 by Norwegian techies in competition with the big guns then — Internet Explorer by Microsoft and Netscape. Explorer later became dominant as it was bundled with computers that run Windows. Safari was bundled with Apple computers. The Chrome browser has the advantage of being integrated with Google. Finally Firefox was popular because it is open source and has a huge array of community-made add-ons. Opera could offer only special features and speed.
 The attraction of Opera in Belarus is that it has special features that allowed users to strip out images and other items that used up a lot of bandwidth. The state monopoly service provider charged hefty fees for use of the Internet. Opera allowed users to save money. Opera was also a leader in encryption another feature attractive to users in Belarus. The situation in Belarus has vastly improved in terms of cost. In 2009 a 1 Mbps connection cost about $45 dollars a month and the average salary was about $342 a month. This year the cost for the same plan is about $7 and the monthly salary average is $470, but Opera continues to be the most popular browser even though there is less concern about cost. Probably this shows that people use web browsers they are used to.
 In my own experience, I used Internet Explorer for years simply because it was the browser that came with computers I purchased. From time to time I would hear of people who used Firefox claiming it was much better. However, why bother changing when what you are using and comfortable with is working. I finally did try Firefox and then Chrome. I now use Firefox and its totally open source clone Ice Weasel on all my computers. I just found it easier to use the same browser no matter what computer I am on. Years ago I did try Opera but did not adopt it because it had compatibility issues with a few websites. However, perhaps I will try out Opera again.
 The review of Opera here is quite positive. Another article claims that Opera should have a larger market share and explains why it does not:
 On paper, Opera should have a massive market share – It’s updated regularly, fast, secure, customizable, introduces lots of new features first, and looks great. It’s also an absolute pleasure to use. So why does it only have a market share of 2.4%? To me, it looks like a matter of branding. Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome are products from Microsoft, Apple and Google respectively, and Firefox has built up a great reputation over a long time. Opera, however, does not have a massive corporation behind it, nor does it have Firefox’s levels of marketing. No matter what the reason really is, you shouldn’t let Opera’s low market share discourage you from giving it a shot.

U.K : Proposed laws allow government to view all emails, texts, etc. without warrants

Legislation will be announced soon that will allow the government to monitor the calls, emails, texts, and even website visits of all UK residents. Internet providers must give intelligence agency GCHQ real time access to all communications.

Naturally all this invasion of privacy is touted as justified to fight crime and terrorism. This is the new Newspeak of George Orwell's 1984.

Even a Tory (Conservative) MP David Davis said the bill is "an unnecessary extension of the ability of the state to snoop on ordinary people". Davis told the BBC:"What this is talking about doing is not focusing on terrorists or criminals, it's absolutely everybody's emails, phone calls, web access...All that's got to be recorded for two years and the government will be able to get at it with no by or leave from anybody." There will be no necessity to get permission from a magistrate.

The director of Big Brother Watch said that the legislation is"an unprecedented step that will see Britain adopt the same kind of surveillance seen in China and Iran".Shami Chakrabarti director of Liberty also criticised the legislation:"This is an absolute attack on privacy online and it is far from clear this will actually improve public safety, while adding significant costs to Internet businesses," Internet companies are also worried about the legislation.

An industry official is quoted as saying that the measures would be "expensive, intrusive [and] a nightmare to run legally". The previous Labor Bill was withdrawn due to opposition. Hopefully, sufficient Liberal, Conservative, and Labour MPs will oppose this bill to have it withdrawn as well. For more see this BBC article.

Net Delusion: New book questions role of internet in promoting democracy

 A new book by Evgeny Morozov called "The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of the Internet" shows how authoritarian regimes such as Iran and Belarus can use the Internet to further their own aims and increase repression.
   In one of his interviews at this site, Morozov notes how there was a great deal of enthusiastic response to protesters in Iran using the Internet to report on what was going on and to promote demonstrations after elections there. However the media gave little coverage to the consequent use of the same Internet communications to seek out and often arrest those who had been promoting the protests.
   Morozov examines the use of the Internet in countries such as Russia, Belarus, China, and Iran and finds that governments can use Internet information to threaten dissidents. In some cases he suggests that there are government sponsored cyber-attacks on dissident websites. As well, governments use the Internet to promote their own agendas. While censorship is one means of controlling Internet content Morozov thinks that it is a mistake to think that this is the only means that governments can use to control the Internet.
 There is also an interview with Morozov here and also here. All three videos can be found at this site.Morozov is a visiting fellow at Stanford University in California.