Friday, March 09, 2007

Exploring the blogsphere

Before I started this course, I did not really know what a blog looks like. Today, I have spent the whole afternoon surfing the web, looking for blogs and I realized that there are thousands (!) of blogs. The topics vary very much from one blog to another: I found music blogs, art blogs, travel blogs, book blogs etc. It is very easy to get lost in the blogsphere if you are looking around without any particular aim; I think it could be compared with roaming around in a foreign city. Finally, I got lost!:-) I started reading a lot of blogs and every new blog contained a large number of interesting links. I was jumping from one blog to another without realizing how many blogs I read and I completely forgot about time.

During my journey through the blogsphere, I came across some interesting blogs. The thing I like most is travelling and therefore, at the beginning, I was looking for a travel blog. I particularly like these kind of blogs because they are structured like diaries and people talk about their experience and give you advices. The travel blogs I like most are www.travelpod.com and www.travelblog.org. Moreover, these travelblogs are interesting if you want to share your experience with your friends: instead of telling everybody the same story, you can create your own blog, talk about the journey and insert pictures. I think I will try to create my own blog during my next trip.

Today, I realized that I definitely have to improve my computer skills. As software and Internet are developing in a very fast way, it becomes more difficult to remain up-to-date. Fortunately, I came across a blog that may be helpful to reach this aim. The blog at issue is the official Google Blog where product managers, engineers, etc. talk about new products and technology. Moreover, you can find some interesting links to other google blogs. Most of the blogs I hit on, were entertaining blogs and I liked above all the blogs where people were talking about music and movies.

As I have already pointed out before, surfing the web it is possible to find a great variety of blogs. Every blog is structured in a diffent way and the kind of language that is used in blogs reflects this caracteristic. Language and style mainly depend on the author and topic. It is possible to find very formal blogs, but in most of the blogs the style is rather informal. Moreover, when writing comments, a lot of people use slang and colloquial expressions. Sometimes it is even possible to hit on vulgar expressions. Finally, everybody has his/her own style ;-).

Susanne March

photosource: www.austinchronicle.com/binary/c10dc480/pols_feature-33010.jpeg

6 comments:

Erica Buzz said...

Dear Susanne,
I found interesting reading about the blogs you chose and I went a bit through them. The blog I liked the most was that about travelling (perhaps because like you I love travelling). Within this blog I found something which I consider important if one wants to be a real "traveller", that is the meaning of the term "travelling". I mean that, in order to be considered travellers, one should behave like one usually does in his own country. When visiting another country one should be aware of the differences existing between himself and the native people. A comment in this blog caught my attention: it focused on the concept of "ethical travelling", and while reading many of the comments present I became more aware of the fact that respect is perhaps the first characteristic a tourist should have, otherwise visiting new places has no reason. What do you think about? When you travel, which is your attitude towards the places and people you are getting in contact to?

Alessandra said...

Hi Susanne, I didn't know Google had a blog! Thanks for the link... now I can go and learn all there is to know about the new Google Desktop! There's the Italian version as well.

ilaria said...

Dear Susi, as you can see I've chosen http://www.travelblog.org/, too, which is a very nice blog about travels. I noticed you suggested to visit also http://www.travelpod.com/, and I was very curious to see how it was different from 'travelblog'. I found that it is similar as far as concerns the the sharing of photos and stories about travels, but it is perhaps more complete as far as links are concerned: there are many more links to web sites where you can book hotels and/or flights. So this blog is maybe more useful if you have to organize a travel, while the other one is better if you just want to get an idea of how a certain city or country is! Thank you very much for your advice!

Ale T. said...

Dear Susanne, at the bottom the openpage of travelpod.com there's a section titled "Travel Blogs? Travelogues? Travel Diaries? Travel Journals?What does it all mean?"...I read it and there is a very clear explanation of these expressions: I think it is a smart introduction to the bog, to help the visitors in understanding where they are and how they can exploit those pages! It would be nice if every blog have such a presentation to guide the readers (and writers)!

Her Royal Highness Susanne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Her Royal Highness Susanne said...

Hi Erica!
Thanks for your comment! Like you, I think that respect should be a fundamental characteristic of a traveller. It is important to become aware of the cultural differences and to adapt oneself. When I travel I always try to respect the culture of the country and behave in a respectful way!
See you soon, Susanne

Hi Alessandra!
Thanks for your comment! I am glad that you like the link!
See you, Susanne

Hi Ilaria!
It was a very good idea to compare the two blogs! Like you, I think that the structure of both is similar but the www.travelpod.com is more complete as fare as links are concerned. Thanks for your comment!
Susi

Hi alessandra!
I am glad that you explored the travel blogs. You are right, the introduction to the blog is useful and helps you to better understand the structure of the blog. Thanks for your comment!
See you, Susanne