Blogging has been around for just about 15 years and is developing all the time.
Originally a weblog was a sort of online diary and the first person to coin the word Blog in fact split the word 'weblog' into 2 as "We Blog". By the turn of the century practice of blogging was common and anyone who had anything to share created a blog and hoped that many people would subscribe and interact.
As of February 2011 there are over 156 Million blogs online. This is a mind boggling figure of course and many can be discounted as personal blogs that people start but don't keep up. But there are other, dedicated bloggers all of whom have something to say and are looking for an audience to say it to. If one was to devote every minute of one's day to keeping up with worthwhile blogs you would drown as there are far more than anyone could possibly cope with.
The types of blogs vary hugely and are growing by the day. They have a huge impact on a lot of things. Politics being one of the most obvious. A politician sitting in Congress has very little chance of keeping in daily touch with his/her constituents in say Portland Oregon or Orange County California. But their blogs can of course keep their constituents up to date with their thinking and the responses to those blogs should give the Congressman a good feel for what the people he purports to represent are feeling.
Of course in reality it doesn't always work like that but it is an ideal to work toward. As part of the whole political blogging business the media has people dedicated to blogging and some of the political blogs become very influential.'Twitter' is of course a microblog which allows the 'tweeter' to instantaneously share thoughts, feelings or news as they happen. Some 'Tweeters' have vast numbers of followers. Social media such as 'MySpace' or 'Facebook' are multiblogs of a sort allowing each individual to tell all of their online 'friends' anything they want to whenever they want to.
Other kinds of blog often stick to type. There are Sports Blogs galore. You can find a blog or many blogs about the team in just about any sport you like. There are blogs about art and music and fashion and college and education and the armed forces and about dogs and cats. Of course there are corporate blogs meant for a small audience of employees and shareholders or there are News Blogs meant for as many as would wish to subscribe.
Napiszar is another blogger who has a lot to say giving some quite in depth thought to the subjects about which he writes his blogs. Football features quite highly on his list of interests but his posts range quite widely from pure news, without comment about Dominique Strauss Kahn and about English Football and Hungary's response to being downgraded by Fitch and Moody's warnings.
This is a general blog and bears watching.
There are more blogs on line than any individual can hope to absorb. Napiszar has created a general Blog concerning a wide range of topics.