Who Let the Blogs Out?: A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs [Paperback]

Biz Stone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0312330006 | ISBN-13: 978-0312330002 | Edition: First Edition

Blogs--or weblogs--are a huge phenomenon on the internet. From ultra-personal diary entries to specialized information on a wide variety of subjects (teen ranting to presidential campaigns), blogs are the new way to create a virtual community that can effect real-world change. It's not hard to set up a blog, but it can be difficult adjusting to life in the "Blogosphere."
One of the first blogging experts, who helped found the weblog community Xanga, Biz Stone will help readers:
--learn the origins of blogging
--discover why blogging is so popular
--explore the ettiquette of the blogosphere
--bring traffic to a blog
--make money by blogging
--use a blog to become influential in any industry
--maintain a blog and keep it fresh
With internet heavies like AOL, Microsoft, and Google already providing weblog software, blogging is moving out of indie geek culture and into the mainstream. Who Let the Blogs Out? is a next generation blogging book for anyone who wants to get started or anyone who wants to keep their blog blooming.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This overview of Web logs, the currently voguish online journals, begins with a tale about a Buddhist monastery "long ago" that used strings to connect documents in a prototypical Internet. The episode is typical of Stone's approach: facts may be interesting enough on their own, but why not dress them up with snazzy distortions? In this work, Stone emulates the worst qualities of many of the unpolished blogs he celebrates. The prose, reading like it was churned out on the fly, is terminally in love with its own hipness, mistaking generalization for profundity and a lack of critical discrimination for democratization. Some of the claims about blogs, such as the notion they are "hooking people up with book deals willy-nilly," are hyperbolic, while others are simply ridiculous (e.g., despite Stone's assertions, "traditional web pages" had "context" long before blogs became popular). As a "senior blogger specialist for Google," Stone's cheerleading is not unexpected, but its clownishness is an overwhelming distraction from the kernels of useful information about the various blogging software manufacturers and their tools.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As a pop-culture reference, the title is surely dated, but the rest of this introduction to the history and culture of blogging is anything but. Stone, who cofounded the blogging site xanga and now works for Google, covers every facet of life in the blogosphere, from helpful html codes to "what to do when your mom discovers your blog." The emphasis here is on the personal weblogger; from political pundits to angsty 14-year-olds, it seems everyone has a blog these days, and Stone wants to help make yours worth reading. But Stone also discusses the new frontiers in the blogosphere, like the growth of blogs in business and the classroom. Throughout, Stone maintains a breezy, colloquial style that makes for engaging reading, even when the pages feature a lot of "u". Both for folks who have been blogging for years and for those who have reached the end of this review wondering what the hell a blog is, this book is the best resource to date on the blogosphere. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312330006
• ISBN-13: 978-0312330002
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 4.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,819,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Biz Stone was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1974. For the past decade, Stone has been developing large scale projects that facilitate the open exchange of information. He is the Co-founder of Twitter, Inc and advisor to several technology startups. Recruited by Google in the early 2000's, Stone met and collaborated with Evan Williams--the pair would later exit the search company to work on their own startup. Twitter was founded in 2007. Stone has been recognized by Time Magazine as one of the most influential persons in the world. He lives in Northern California with his wife, Livia.