Weblogs and Web Journals have been around for some time now. A web journal is a site where a person (or persons) publishes their thoughts on a regular basis. A weblog is usually defined as a series of links, added to daily, on a certain set of themes by an individual or organisation, although a weblog often includes elements of a journal as well. A good example of a strict weblog is http://www.guardian.co.uk/weblog, which is a series of links on related news topics. It’s published by the English online copy of the paper Guardian Unlimited.

Personal Online Publishing really got a boost with the creation of free publishing tools like those that can be found at www.blogger.com, and Xanga, (www.xanga.com) . There are more tools than these, but these two are really popular. As well as introducing you to the possibility of starting your own online journal or weblog, they have an abundance of other links and search methods to find more personal sites than you could imagine.

Content on sites can vary from the everyday minutiae of someone’s life, thoughts on popular topics, to the most intimate details of life. Standards for online design vary from site to site. Some sites are designed by professional designers like Tom Coates from England at www.plasticbag.org, others feature eye gouging designs. Likewise spelling and grammar are sometimes regarded as optional. Please remember too that some content may offend. Some people seem willing to share just about anything online. On the other side of the coin, there will definitely be someone out there who is writing about what you’ll find interesting, as there are literally thousands of these types of sites around.

So, you’re wondering, do New Zealanders do this? They sure do. You can check out a whole heap of sites at www.updatefu.com or search for them here at www.searchnz.co.nz.

Some of my favourite sites not mentioned above are www.notsosoft.com/blog (insightful personal log), www.neilgaiman.com (best-selling Author in the States), www.timemachinego.com/linkmachinego (UK based, comic and political oriented weblog), www.eclectic.org.nz/nick/ (stray thoughts from Waiau).