Mobile Blogging.

Some time ago, mobile phones were luxury accessories that the rich and influential carried in their hands. These earlier models were bulky, shaped like cordless phones and not easy to hide from the envious stares of passersby. Nowadays, they are neither solely used for voice conversations nor considered an exclusive item meant for the chosen few. Look around: the doodhwala owns one and so does the paanwala. With the cost of a basic handset starting from approximately 1,000 rupees, the average Javaid can easily afford it and be a victim of 'excessive texting syndrome'.

With the advances in mobile technology, today's handsets come with flashy displays, polyphonic ringtones, true voice ring tones, Bluetooth, infrared, internal access and good quality cameras. From being able to write one's grocery list to taking on-the spot photos, mobile phones have opened the doors for sharing our lives with other people on this planet quickly and easily. Before the digital era, people used to record their thoughts and opinions by penning them down in their diaries. These diaries gave historians, culture theorists and tabloids something which shed light on and helped them to formulate events that had happened in a past era. With the advent of the internet, our world has gotten smaller and more connected as cultures merge and thoughts link together.  Diaries, once a private affair are now being written on the internet for the purpose of sharing thoughts, political or religious ideologies and for finding like-minded people from around the globe. And the place to showcase one's flair for writing is called a weblog.

Weblogs commonly referred to as blogs, have branched out in many different forms adapting to various purposes in a span of barely two years. It has gone beyond the personal sphere and infiltrated even into the corporate and business worlds. Company blogs are used to inform consumers about buying their latest products and innovations. Yet another somersault into the world of blogging is mobile blogging.

Coined by combining the words mobile and weblog, moblogs are the latest phenomenon to take the world of digital diction by storm. A moblog is the easiest way to post cellphone pictures, text entries, or videos on the internet, simply bye-mailing it to your moblog address. Textamerica, Blogger, TypePad, Fotopages and MSN Spaces are just a few of the many websites that support moblogs, already boasting a huge user base of mobloggers. Big name search engines are expected to start their own moblogs in order to stay up-to-date with the moblog bandwagon. According to BBC News, Google is dipping its feet into creating a site for video blogs, while Kodak has already launched its Wi-Fi digital camera to capture a huge market of bloggers who are just not satisfied with their two-megapixel camera phones. On the other end, Nokia has come up with Lifeblog software for camera phones that automatically collects photos, videos, SMSs and MMSs into a single diary to easily browse, share, store and search.

Creating a moblog is just one part of the story, the other is reading them. Most people are addicted to reading their favourite mob logs in almost the same way as they crave their morning tea or java. Readers can interact by leaving comments on the blogs or linking their favourite blogs. A section of people regard blogging as a learning experience, while others take it as a voyeuristic experience that can be as tempting as eavesdropping. Whatever the reason people choose to blog, the art of writing is not yet dead.

_{source Spider Mag.}