If you use the internet regularly, you surely have seen an increase in internet journals known as blogs (web logs) over the last few years.  Currently, there are millions of blogs on the Internet.  There are many reasons for this and we can expect this trend to continue. 

 

The popularity of blogs is continuing to grow. According to recent statistics from the blog-tracking site Technorati, the blogosphere has doubled every six months for the last three years. That's 175,000 new blogs per day worldwide. Technorati added its fifty millionth blog on July 31, 2006.

 

Making personal homepages was the trend of the past.  Today, we are seeing more people make their own personal blogs.  Some blogs are personal diaries of sorts which record a person’s thoughts, activities and reactions and they can be made for any reason.  Some make them to be a new form of a family news letter.  And some make them to promote their personal hobbies.

 

Another popular use of blogs is to build on-line communities of people with similar interests. These can be like a fan site for sports teams, or for celebrities or even for politics. During the 2004 Presidential Campaign in the U.S., Gov. Howard Dean was the first presidential candidate to use blogs to promote their campaign.

 

One of the most popular kinds of blogs are blogs that are used as a news source.  Many believe that this is a factor in the decline of the popularity of newspapers.  The major news agencies have noticed this and all have news blogs of their own.

 

One of the fastest growing uses in blogs is by webmasters adding content to their sites.  Blogs provide quality search engine optimization (SEO) power by their very design. The power of the blog lies in keyword rich content and in imbedded links.

 

It is also a great way for visitors of a site to communicate and leave feedback with the publishers of the website. Webmasters also can use blogs to test ideas or try and get feedback about new products from the sites visitors.

 

One thing seems to be for sure.  Blogs are here and if you are not reading them or publishing one, you are soon going to be in the minority of people who use the internet.

The author of this article publishes the internet news and online marketing blog Your Info Connection