This is the second of two Y-Press stories on blogs. To read the April 16 story, visit www.indystar.com/living.

When Christopher Columbus set out for India, he didn't even have an accurate map.

Today, millions of people are setting out into another uncharted territory called the Internet. Never before has so much information been so readily accessible to so many people. While much focus has been on the dangers of this new world, its many uses continue to be a source of wonder.

One of the most controversial uses is the Weblog, or blog. The term "Weblog" was coined in December 1997, a few years after blogs first began appearing, and the shortened term "blog" was first used two years later. Widespread blog use has taken place only in the past three years, however.

One reason for the burgeoning growth in blogs is that users no longer need to learn HTML to create one. Web sites such as www.blogger.com, www.myspace.com and www.xanga .com allow users to create profiles and upload content quickly and easily after creating an account, generally for free. Templates are available online for some of these Web sites, most notably MySpace, which allow users to utilize a variety of media, generally photos and text, but also music and video.

Concern about blogs generally focuses on those created by teens, who often use them as a secondary social network. But blogs serve many more purposes, such as outlets for advertisers, forums for discussion of news events and teaching aids.

Michael Hanley, an assistant professor specializing in advertising at Ball State University, has been watching blogs as an up-and-coming venue for advertisers. "Recent research shows that of teenagers between 12 and 17, a little more than half of you are looking at blogs on a regular basis. So you've probably seen some ads on blogs if you're on there a lot, and there'll be ads that are really targeted to young people," he said.

Advertising is not just a necessary evil, he said, noting that it underwrites many of the free services on the Internet. "It's helped fund the development of (the Internet), and it's the same thing for a lot of the blogs, especially a lot of the news blogs, the political blogs. They get a lot of their funding from advertising now. That's how they're able to expand and to keep producing at the level of material that you're seeing on the blogs," he said.

The majority of students use blogs in much the same way as Warren Central sophomore Danielle Treece does -- to share information or gossip, make announcements or complain about life.

"If something happens in my life that I want to write something about, then I do," said Danielle, who maintains a MySpace blog.

Many blogs die because of lack of interest, however. According to a 2004 survey by the Perseus Development Corp., a Web-based research company, 66 percent of surveyed blogs had not been updated in two or more months, and a little over a million were just one-day wonders. Often, students use pages more as personal identifiers than as voices.

Communication is the most common use for blogs. News opinion blogs, however, have been far more influential. A few noteworthy opinion blogs can be accessed from the Huffington Post, Drudge Report and slate.com.

Hanley sees such blogs as some of the most important uses of blogs. "I go to a political blog all the time to get information about what's going on in Washington because it's a lot better information than I can get on CNN, and a lot faster," he said.

Speedy communication

"Information shows up on the blogs before it shows up on television," he said. "So average people will start using blogs as a news source, for example, as well as a personal information source."

Some students, such as Lebanon High School sophomores Matthew Farris and Zach Ammerman, are taking advantage of this phenomenon.

They edit "Today's Awakening: A New Perspective On World and Local News" (http://todaysawaken ing.blogspot.com). Matthew founded the blog in 2005. "I think it's really for me to reach out to people my age. I kind of see caring about politics as having a kind of awakening in your life," he explained.

"Today's Awakening" has covered an array of topics, such as a local fire, the school's finals policy and standardized testing, as well as the war in Iraq, getting along with other people and other current events. "I like to get people more educated about what's going on in the world around them," Zach said.

While relatively few teens put their blogs to this kind of use, Valerie Coulter, 15, who until recently helped edit "Today's Awakening," says blogs can be a good way for students to make their voices heard. "Most teenagers feel like if they say their opinion about what's going on in the world, they might be shot down just simply because they aren't old enough to understand a whole lot. But (blogging) is an easy way to express your opinion. All you have to do is get on the computer and type it in and hit a 'Post' button, and your opinion is out there for the entire world to see," she said.

Youth are not the only blog creators. More and more professionals, such as engineers and designers, use blogs to share information and photographs. Even teachers are using blogs to communicate with students.

Luke Hovee, 17, a home-schooled student from Indianapolis, is taking a class that uses a blog, with class updates and similar information; he does not, however, have a personal blog. "I'm not that into them."

Hanley also has a class blog, on Facebook, and encourages students to use blogs for two reasons -- to understand the technology and to see how advertising is capitalizing on it.

"If you're a high school student or if you're a college student, and you're not using a blog or don't know about them, you're behind the curve," he explained. "I also suggest it as a way to look around and see how advertising may be starting to show up in blogs and some of the other technologies, like cell phones."

Uncommon teaching tool

Hanley is fairly unusual among the faculty of Ball State for using a class blog; he estimated that two or three of 28 faculty members in his department use blogs. However, the use of classroom blogs overall has gone up, for obvious reasons. "I have classes and we meet for two hours a week. Now, that's not very long really to teach someone something really in depth," said Hanley. "When you add a blog to it, then it's really a 24-hour learning environment, and students like that."

In addition, blogs enrich the classroom discussion. "What the professors who are using blogs have found out is that it's a way for students, all students, to participate. Even if they're a little bit intimidated, they can go to a Web site and give their opinion. You can be anonymous if you want to, or you can also leave your name, but you can still give your opinion the way you want to without being intimidated in class," he added.

Blogs are here to stay, whether people like it or not, and will keep evolving. Hanley says blogs are beneficial for many, though they might raise some new issues.

"If you look a year ahead or two years ahead, it'll be very common for all of us to have a cell phone, and if we want to watch 'American Idol,' all we'll have to do is dial the 'American Idol' number and the show will be on there. We can watch it anytime we want to.

"The same thing with blogs -- you'll be able to use these other technologies that were being developed for things like the cell phone and Internet radio, and you'll be able to use those in your blogs," Hanley continued. "So the blog will become kind of a home court for accessing other types of technologies. And of course, it's a free home court, so that's going to be the real motivator for people -- you're not going to really have to pay a lot of money to be able to go to other people's blogs to watch these other types of entertainment."

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Britany Lewis, 15; Rebecca Salois, 16.

REPORTERS: Ariana Gainer, 11; Katie McDowell, 13; Steven Thompson, 14.