Video blogs, shortly known as vlogs, are basically blogs whose content is primarily video. Aside from that variation in content, vlogs are functionally identical to their text-based predecessors.

Amateur-Friendly

As video recording equipment became more affordable and video editing software became more available, more people were willing to try vlogging. With decent video cameras starting at a couple of hundred dollars and the software for less than a hundred online, the field of digital video was opened up to just about anyone.

Casual users and previous bloggers saw vlogging as a new way to record their ideas and experiences online. Enthusiasts and non-professional filmmakers could now distribute their works across a wide international audience. To Steve Garfield, it was the next big thing.

The Vlog Man

Steve Garfield was one of the largest proponents of vlogging and is one of the first vloggers on the planet. He had seen videos posted on other sites and wondered if he could do the same on his mostly text blog. After some experimentation, he was able to make his first vlog entry on January 1, 2004 pronouncing that year as “The Year of the Video Blog.” He co-founded an online group dedicated to vlogging, the first of its kind.

Originals Not Required

Vlogging was seen as a new creative outlet for artists and amateurs the world over. One could start a vlog even without his own original video. Mash-ups or reinventions of current video items such as spoofs are a common item in blogs. Works of VJ art or video remixes have also found a distribution outlet in vlogs. Many vlogs don’t even bother to modify the content; some vloggers post clips or advertisements that they found interesting from television and movies. While some corporations have seen this as unauthorized use of copyrighted content, some have also taken advantage of the situation as an opportunity for free marketing of their content.

Vlog Now

Vlogging is a fairly simple process. You just take some source video – it could be your own or an original video from someone else – and post it on a vlog server or a blog server that accepts video content. Many blog hosts now allow bloggers to post video content as well as text. If you want to edit the video before putting it online, there are many video editing solutions available – several of them are free. Movie Maker, which is a bundled program with recent versions of the Windows OS, is a great example of a basic editing tool.

Power to the People

With the advent of vlogging, just about anyone could send out a message to the rest of the world through footage, a video clip or a documentary. The power to create and wield such media is no longer exclusive to large media companies but is now available to ordinary people.

The popularity of blogs has skyrocketed in recent years because of the greater availability of internet access and the creation of many free blog hosting services. Recently, blogs have also been seen as potential sources of income (particularly, advertising income) because of the traffic that their content can attract.

Blogs are considered to be one form of social media because readers can participate by leaving comments or feedback about the blog in general or on individual blog entries. It is also a common practice for bloggers to refer to each other in entries or to formally cite affiliated blogs through a blogroll or a listing of other blogs.

Blogs: A History

Blogs were formerly and more formally known as weblogs until 1999 when Peter Merholtz coined the shorter and more popular term. Blogs actually started earlier than most would suspect, with the first bloggers starting out around 1994. Some of these pioneers went on to contribute something to blogging. For instance, Brad Fitzpatrick made his mark through his 1999 creation, LiveJournal. Interest in blogs didn’t peak until the early 2000’s though; many blogging sites had less than a thousand users in the late 1990’s but had tens of millions by 2005.

The Many Faces of the Blog

Blogs have evolved from the basic online diary. The tech blog BoingBoing, for instance, has been developed to make it an ideal means for distributing news and information. Some companies have integrated blogs onto their websites so that users can readily see recent updates and developments. Many have turned their blogs into records of current events, usually accompanied by a critique. Numerous blogs also exist for the sole purpose of proclaiming the writer’s opinions.

Recently, some blogs have surfaced as alternative sources of news to complement the information on broadcast and print media. These are often filled with accounts of people who have intimate knowledge of events from crimes to large-scale social events.

The Freedom of Blogs

The increased use of blogging has led to several court cases in recent years, most of them involving one party defaming or posting negative comments about another. Prominent cases, such as the political John Doe vs. Patrick Cahill case, have not been in short supply. Many people have been taken to court because of derogatory or libelous remarks that they have posted online.

Shushing Bloggers

Confidentiality has also been another issue with posting on blogs. Despite their somewhat personal and journal-like nature, blogs and their contents are available to hundreds of millions of users worldwide through the internet. Many corporate employees and everyday individuals have found themselves in court because they confided information in their blog that, for some larger entities, should have been kept to themselves. Trade secrets and inside corporate information posted on blogs have been the cause of many a court case.

Despite their cryptic name and often humble appearance, blogs have become a ubiquitous feature of the online landscape. So far, they have become defining factors in the advent of user-generated content.