noun. The totality of blogs; blogs as a community; blogs as a social network.
(coined by William Quick)
Usage: “The blogosphere has been abuzz with the Trent Lott story for the last few days and many of the blogs are baying for blood!”
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The key to understanding blogs is understanding the blogosphere. Blogs themselves are just a web format, whereas the blogosphere is a social phenomenon. It is hard to overstate the importance of this.
What really differentiates blogs from webpages or forums or chatrooms is that blogs (at least properly implemented ones) are designed from the outset to be part of that shifting internet-wide social network. There have been many attempts to design ‘social software’ but thus far the only effective example is the blogosphere, which was not ‘designed’ by anyone but is an emergent phenomenon.
