The big change is in the software.

It's always been possible, since HTML was created, for anyone who wanted to post stream of consciousness drivel (or occasionally, perhaps even something useful) {;-) to the Web to do so.

But in order to do that, until the development of blog software, you had to know how to use an HTML editor and an FTP program. Even WYSIWYG "point and click" HTML editors combined with FTP programs such as Front Page had a bit of learning curve, certainly more than blog software.

Now, the blog software takes typing and formats it and uploads it for you with the same ease as posting an e-mail to a listserv or posting a comment to a chat room or posting a message to a newsgroup.

But because it creates an "instant Web site", the result has greater accessibility to a potentially much broader audience than listservs, much more permanence that a chat room posting and is more easily indexed and searched by a wide range of search engines than newsgroups.

Blog-created Web pages also have the virtue of all Web pages, the ability to link material from anywhere on the Web to a single page or groups of pages.

But the basic principle remains the same: typing out text information to distribute via the Internet in the perhaps sometimes vain hope that at least some other people might find it as interesting as you do.

So, again, the change has been in the software which allows anyone to easily and immediately type their thoughts and have them appear on a Web site in a reasonably coherent and organized lay-out.

And, as noted, now, thanks to blog software, with the same ease as using listservs, chat rooms and news groups, you can create something for a much broader potential audience than listservs, with much more permanence than a chat room posting and much more searchable by more search engines that newsgroups.