By their very nature, blogs are the building blocks of Web 2.0. For those of you who don’t know, the term Web 2.0 was coined by Tim O’Reilly back in 2003, and is defined by wikipedia as:
… a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.
Now some four years later as blog usage has exploded, a more social aspect to the web has been emerging as well. This year, we have seen businesses trying to harness user-created content and encouraging their information to be shared via technology.
Some of the hotter sites we’ve seen of late:
- Twitter – This is a microblogging tool that reminds us of instant messaging to the world
- MyBlogLog – This tool helps you create a community around your blog – like a “blogroll” with pictures
- LinkedIn – This site helps you to network personally and professionally – think 6 degrees of separation
- Facebook – Hijacked from the college crowd, businesspeople are encouraged to create networks around a company, region, or school
- Flickr – An original Web 2.0 / social site, this one allows you to share and tag photos
Have you extended your blog with one or more of these social tools?