What is a blog?

What is a blog?

You tell me, you're the person reading one.

Yes, I know, you didn't mean to, but here it is, a blog, and you are reading it.

So I ask again, what is a blog?

See, I thought you would know because I'm always all "blog this" and "blog that" and no one ever says to me "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, wait a second. But what exactly is a blog?" And since no one ever asks me I just figured everyone knew.

So I was hoping someone would tell me because I get a little confused.

Here is what I was thinking a blog is:

A frequently updated collection of short, often somewhat personal essays by a single author, sometimes about library work.

Here is the Internet's official definition for a blog:

A personal website or web page on which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis.

That's not terribly far off from my thinking!

But then I looked up the most reputable, major media lists of the most influential blogs, the most admired blogs, and the most popular blogs in the world and I found that what it all really came to is this:

A blog is sort of a magazine that comes out everyday and sometimes has moving pictures and sound. 

This is definitely getting pretty far afield from what I was thinking, but we weren't even done yet. I looked at the hundred most popular blogs for a bit more, I thought very hard, and, suddenly, I had it:

A blog is every single thing on the entire Internet.