Cosmo Digital

      When the "blogging" phonemenon began, I was immediately scornful and derisive of it. For the most part I still am, feeling that the vast majority of the web logs have no purpose other than allowing teenage morons the ability to vent their little personal dramas and display their (usually) horrendous anime fanfiction. However, above all those reasons, I believe that the reason I dislike the sites is because I hate the name: "blog".

      As I am minoring in Linguistics, I am taught that one should not be prescriptive to a fault, as language is constantly changing. However, when it comes to this term I can not help but be prescriptive. This word strikes me as far more of a slick marketing term rather than real evolution of the English Language. In many ways it strikes me as similar to the marketing word "tween", which I hate more than I hate Hitler. God, I hate that word. Anyway, what happened with the word "blog" was that two words of the original term "web log" were compounded together, and then clipping occured where the initial syllable of the word was removed, thus leaving "blog". In my mind this clipping seems unsecessary, and possibly the outcome of a deliberate attempt to make the phrase "cute". Christ, it is only two syllables. Is clipping really necessary at this point?

      Keep reading, I am rapidly arriving at my thesis. Because of my hatred of the word, I have been rather dismissive of anyone who has a so-called "blog". My usual response to a person revealing that they had a "blog" was to ask them when they were going to get a real website. However, just because the vast majority of people who have web logs are complete morons, it does not mean the the technology and coding that build those web logs is inherently flawed. Thus, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I have been considering to get one myself. However, if this happens and I do get one, I will ensure that it is titled "Web [SPACE] Log", preventing future attempts at clipping by stupid people who fell for the marketing propaganda.

      In these days of rampant capitalism, it is beneficial for any potential consumer to shop around for what will benefit them the most. Thus, I will not immediately join up with the "blog" site that every single teenage idiot with a web browser registers at (myspace.com). Neither will I join up with the ones that a select few of my friends are using, even though they reccomend it (livejournal.com). I instead will test out multiple "blog" sites and come to an educated conclusion by comparing their benefits and drawbacks.

I have currently selected three sites, and in the near future will register at them at attempt to set up my own web log. The ones I have selected are as follows:

Myspace.com - Probably the most popular site of the three I am testing, this site is owned by News Corp. the same company that owns Fox News. The layouts of these sites are usually horrible, but that might be the fault of the users rather than the company itsef.

Livejournal.com - Less known than Myspace, this "blog" site offers both a free account and a paid account, where the paid account includes more features. Furthermore, the code behind this site is actually open source, which means that anyone can take it and use it for their own site.

Blogger.com - This one, although initially developed by the company Pyra Labs, is now owned by Google, so it is pretty slick looking. It has site templates, but also has API libraries enabeling a person to tie their site into various Google functions (like Adsense and possibly Google Maps). The term "blogger" here actually refers to the programming code that makes up the sites, and is different than "blogSpot", which is where the "blogs" using this code are usually hosted. Both, however, are owned by the same company.

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