What is a blog? How do you use it? And what is a live badge?

he term blog is a blend of the terms web and log, leading to web log, weblog, and finally blog. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called blogging. Individual articles on a blog are called "blog posts," "posts" or "entries". A person who posts these entries is called a blogger. A blog entry typically consists of the following: * Title - main title, or headline, of the post. * Body - main content of the post. * Comments - comments added by readers * Permalink - the URL of the full, individual article. * Post Date - date and time the post was published. A blog entry optionally includes the following: * Categories (or tags) - subjects that the entry discusses * Trackback - links to other sites that refer to the entry A blog site typically contains a list of links, or blogroll, of other blogs that the blog author reads or affiliates with. [edit] How blogs differ from traditional sites A blog has certain attributes that distinguish it from a standard web page. It allows for easy creation of new pages: new data are entered into a simple form (usually with the title, the category, and the body of the article) and then submitted. Automated templates take care of adding the article to the home page, creating the new full article page (Permalink), and adding the article to the appropriate date- or category-based archive. It allows for easy filtering of content for various presentations: by date, category, author, or other attributes. It allows the administrator to invite and add other authors, whose permission and access are easily managed. [edit] Difference from forums or newsgroups Blogs are different from forums or newsgroups. Only the author or authoring group can create new subjects for discussion on a blog. A network of blogs can function like a forum in that every entity in the blog network can create subjects of their class. Such networks require interlinking to function, so a group blog with multiple people holding posting rights is now becoming more common. Even where others post to a blog, the blog owners or editors will initiate and frame discussion, manipulating the situation to their specification. [edit] Digital media While straight text and hyperlinks dominate, some blogs emphasize images (such as webcomics and photoblogs) and videos (see videoblogging). Some textual blogs link to audio files (see podcasting). A notable niche is the MP3 blog, which specializes in posting music from specific genres. New words have been coined for many of these content-oriented blogs, such as "moblog" (for "mobile blog").