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Blogging can be fun, but there are several issues to be aware of lest you end up on the wrong side of the law. Here are some web resources that can give you an overview of some of such issues. These websites refer mostly to the Singaporean context.

Legal Issues:
Radio Singapore International: Blogwatch on the Legal Pitfalls in Blogging
WWLegal.com [Look for FAQs on the left link bar and click on the subject "Bloggers" when on the FAQ page]
Law Gazette by the Law Society of Singapore: Bloggers Beware, The Five Commandments for Bloggers

Corporate Issues:
ZDnet Asia: Want to blog? Stick to the rules
ST701: Itching to write? Blogging about work
Radio Singapore International: Blogwatch, Foreign Affairs Minister, George Yeo, on the role of blogs in society and the media

Other useful resources:
SPRING Singapore: Singapore Online Safety Guide (scroll down the page, find the link and download it)

All websites last accessed 24th November, 2006.

For more information, you could also refer to the books in our earlier post.

Answered by Jillian Lim, Librarian, Public Library Services

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The blogosphere (a term to describe the all blogs collectively) has at least 57 million blogs and is growing at an average of 100,000 new blogs each day (Source: David Sifry’s State of the Blogsphere, October 2006).

With this huge amount of blogs, it is very difficult to find the type of blogs that are of interest to you. However, there are a number of blog search engines or blog directories that can make finding a blog that shares your interests or hobbies much easier. There are also awards given out by the blogging community for the best blogs.

Blog Search Engines
These search through blogs to find blogs or blog entries that match what you input. Eg. Key in Singapore to find blogs that mention Singapore. Here are some search engines:
Technorati
Google Blog Search
Feedster
Blogdigger
Ice Rocket

Blog directories
These are compilations of blogs according to subject matter. Here are some blog directories:
Yahoo Blog Directories (a compilation of various directories)
Google Blog Directories (a compilation of various directories)
Forbes blog directory

There are many more blog search engines out there, though the above are some of the more popular ones. If are interested to find more, you can peruse this “Big List of Blog Search Engines“.

There are also Mandarin blog search engines as well:
Blogcn
Blogchina.com
Sina Blog

You may also like to check out this book, which provides blog recommendations:
Blogsphere : best of blogs by Peter Kuhns and Adrienne Crew
Indianapolis, Ind. : Que, c2006
Call No.: 006.7 KUH -[COM]
Description:
You probably have your favorite blogs to visit each day, but there are countless other blogs that you could never find on your own and that could potentially be added to the top of your favorites! Blogosphere: Best of Blogs is a collection of the blogs you’ve heard about and the ones still waiting to be discovered. Organized into sections based on interests and moods, you’ll find a listing of the best blogs out there, along with the reasons why they’ve made the list. Complete with searching tips and strategies, Blogosphere will help you find the greatest voices in the blogging universe.

How do I find blogs by Singaporeans or about Singapore?
You could try using a blog search engine as mentioned above or visit some or the following Singapore blog directories:
BloggerSG
Blogflux: Singapore blogs

Or try these Singaporean community metablogs (simply put, a metablog is a blog about blogs)
Tomorrow.sg
Ping.sg

All websites last accessed 24th November, 2006.

Answered by Jillian Lim and Isaak Kwok, Librarians, Public Library Services

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