Blog or Website?

Blogs and websites are different media for different types of content—as different as newspapers are from books.

You've heard a lot about blogs (weblogs), the easy-to-use Internet websites on which all sorts of people write and publish their thoughts daily, weekly, even hourly.

What's the difference between a blog and a website?

Short answer: a blog is to a newspaper as a website is to a book. Each is a useful, popular form of publication, and each has its own constraints and requirements.

Blogs are best suited to quickly-changing content such as political commentary, economic trends, social comment, restaurant and theater reviews, and celebrity-tracking. Readers are most interested in the latest information, which is easily accessible on the blog's homepage. The archive of previous blog entries is useful, but of less interest or importance. You consult a blog as you would a newspaper.

Websites are (or at least should be) well-organized and -designed bodies of permanent information that take into account recent changes, but offer depth and breadth of information as well as timeliness. You consult a website as you would a book, encyclopedia or library.

Think about what you want to write. Is it transitory or durable? Will people be looking for it in a month or a year, as well as right now?

Here are uses of each medium for travel information:

Blogs

— Theater, ballet, concert reviews

— Restaurant reviews, particularly of new or changed establishments

— Newly-opened or renovated hotels

— Short-term travel packages and deals

Websites

— Hotel and restaurant directories

— What to see and do: sights, museums, parks

— Transportation systems and how to use them

— History, culture and other background information