Blog v Wiki
To know the differences between a blog and a wiki, we first need to know the actual definitions of the words. According to wooster.edu, a wiki page is created, modified or organized by multiple users who want to collaboratively maintain the contents of a certain page. On the other hand, a blog (also called a weblog), is like a web-based diary where one single user posts his/her opinion on a particular topic. As you are reading this, you are actually using a weblog right now!
Let's now focus on the differences between a blog and wiki. A blog is somewhere an author shares his opinions and readers comment. This opinion sharing which take place in the comment section is usually approved by the blogger to create a one-to-many communication system. Also, the growth of blogs is slow compared to Wikis. Since only one post is created at a time, users not only tend to lose their patience to follow the blog after a period of time but also with the growing popularity of Facebook, users spend less time reading blogs (decreasing the user traffic).
To add on, an uncountable number of blogs over the internet has made easier for users to follow blogs of different authors, different websites and even different companies. For instance, after yahoo's big coup of acquiring Tumblr in 2013, there was a significant amount of user decline on Tumblr. Though the CEO of Yahoo had said that the user traffic measures were a bit off since the traffic from Tumblr app was not incorporated with the stats, the main reason for user downfall was the emergence of Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed is similar but yet different from Tumblr. It not only focuses on blogs where users could share their thoughts, but also collaborates internet media, new, and entertainment (Jeff Bercovici, 2014). Hence, both Tumblr and Buzzfeed serve as a platform where people could connect, share thoughts and opinions freely and without any formalities or hesitation.
On the other hand, Wikis are pages which can be created, edited and organized by a number of authors. It can be accessed by many other users and hence a many-to-many communication system is created. Unlike blogs where authors share their opinions, Wikis are used to share knowledge and facts. These are constantly being updated and discussions take place in the discussion forum of the page. The main advantage and disadvantage of a wiki are summed up by a special assistant at the United States Embassy in Rome, Stacie R. Hankins, "The advantages are obvious, in efficiency and in saving paper, but it has required a leap of faith, too. For, theoretically, at least, anyone at the State Department could have edited the biographies" (Noam Cohen, 2008).
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