Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
9
ADDING GRAPHICS TO YOUR
POSTS
Why Add Graphics and Other Media?
From the beginning of weblogs and the coining of the word
blog
,
believed to have first occurred in 1999, blogs have gone against the
trend. Graphics were always part of the very definition of the Web.
Sound and audio files, even 3D interactive environments, were being
used more and more. All of these trends continue today.
Yet here came blogs. This seemingly unstoppable torrent of words,
words, words. Hundreds, then thousands, then millions of people—
many wrestling with the technical difficulties that cursed blogs in their
early days—and some even paying fairly high blogging fees, all so they
could write, and write, and write.
Even more millions of people, perhaps more visitors than many might
have guessed would do so, logged onto the blogs to read and comment
as well.
What have we learned from this? That, yes, torrents of words are valu-
able on the Web—both to the writer and to the readers. Also, separately,
that multimedia is very valuable indeed.
Do bloggers need media today? If this is a strict yes-or-no question, like
some of the polls discussed in Chapter 7, “Adding Features to Your
Blog,” the answer, clearly, is: No. Many blogs are successful with bor-
ing, me-too layouts and little or no use of media.
However, it's also worth considering the story of the two hikers and the
bear, which goes like this: Two hikers came onto a stream, stopped, slid
their backpacks off, took off their shoes, and started splashing around.
