The simplest way to explain what a blog is

If you are a blogger you probably have to deal with that odd question from your friends: what is a blog? Although blogs are nothing new, most people can't make the difference between a blog and a site and most people can't explain them well except by technical terms. The common definition is to say that a blog is a online diary. But this is not true because a diary does not have the conversation aspect that are specific to blogs.

So after nearly 3 years of intense blogging, i think i came up with the simplest and probably best way to explain what a blog is:

A blog is like an email (or series of email) sent to everyone.

• Creating a blog is very similar to creating an email account on Yahoo.
• Writing a blog post is like writing a message that you make available on the web for everyone (when an email goes to some persons only)
• Writing a blog post is very similar to writing an email and the blog platforms use editors that look like very much an email client.Take a look at Live Writer or ScribeFire, They really look like Outlook express without "From" "To" and "cc"
  
• instead of pressing send you press publish
• you generate conversations or better said interactions with your readers. Instead of a reply to they post a comment
• It is no surprise if many choose to subscribe to blogs in Outlook (2007+) because it looks like an email message
• It is not surprise if many choose to receive blogs in a newsletter format (via Feedblitz like on this blog)
  

In a word a blog is like a public email. And for those who do not dare to start a blog because they think it is complicated, this is not more complicated than writing an email (setup is really simple now on blogger and typepad)

That's why i don't understand when a blogger like Jason Calacanis stop blogging to switch to the email/newsletter form. He writes the sames things and interact the same way (if someone wants to send him an email he can from a blog to) with readers except he makes it exclusive for a few, and not available for everyone. This just does not make sense to me, and i would not be surprised that 1-this is not the beginning of a trend 2- one day he comes back to blogging.

Anyway i think now you have an explanation simple enough to be understood by your parents or grand parents.