A sideblog is a feature on a website, particularly a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, that allows one to communicate smaller snippets of information than an actual blog post. The reasoning is that a blog post will require thought, argument and some semantic structuring of the post, while a sideblog typically displays "brief asides". A sideblog is meant to illustrate your immediate thoughts, movements or status update, and is usually less than 200 characters. Where a blog post may be compared to a newspaper opinion piece, a sideblog would be akin to the "news in brief" column. Sideblogging is wedded to the concept of

micro-blogging Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts or status updates. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the ...

, where one posts brief snippets to interested observers via

text messaging Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

the web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond IT specialists and hobbyists. It allows documents and other web ...

. Using the same tools, one can post to one's micro-blog and to one's sideblog simultaneously. Most sideblogs are actually embedded micro-blogs that appear in a small sidebar box next to the main blog posts and use feeds or plugins to display the content. Frequently updating one's status and frame of mind in an online platform to be viewed by friends gained widespread adoption through

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

tools like

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

. While those tools are still largely desktop-bound, micro-blogs (and, by extension, sideblogs) are designed to be updated from mobile devices as well as desktop computers. Therefore, it is more convenient to post one's status with a simple text message, and interested parties can note your status by browsing your sideblog or receiving a text or

alert. This meaning came to change with the advent of blogrolls, blog engine plugins, and widgets and third-party lists of

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

, like tag clouds and social bookmarks.

See also