An interesting comment on what blogs are and how they differ from previous forms of communication: Blogs are an instance of "publicy" - the McLuhan reversal of "privacy" - that occurs under the intense acceleration of instantaneous communications. Our notion of privacy was created as an artifact of literacy - silent reading lead to private interpretation of ideas that lead to private thoughts that lead to privacy. Blogging is an "outering" of the private mind in a public way (that in turn leads to the multi-way participation that is again characteristic of multi-way instanteous communictions.) Unlike normal conversation that is essentially private but interactive, and unlike broadcast that is inherently not interactive but public, blogging is interactive, public and, of course, networked - that is to say, interconnected. This characterization applies equally to diaries, link hubs, and every other variation on the blog theme. However, this classification only considers the topic from the direction of communication, not its outward form. But perhaps form is truly irrelevant - certain characteristics inevitably emerge, but the exact form of blogs is as diverse as the programmers of the software (and the users who modify the templates and thus the presentation). The way we communicate probably says far more about what makes blogs what they are than the way we present that communication visually. Here you can find the original article.