Host: Spamhuas, infosnacking, Roguecast, blogs. It’s tough to keep up with the fast-paced, ever-changing world of Net lingo. You could add one more to E evolution – vlogs. They’re just like blogs or web logs that have invaded the Internet. The difference is they include video. Our Ed Crane sat down with the Wall Street Journal’s Dionne Searcey for more on this medium that’s mushrooming.

Ed: You’ve been delving into this form of online self-expression. What have you learned?

Dionne: Well, vlogging’s a pretty interesting art form that’s cropped up on the Internet. It’s very simple to do. We think that maybe thousands of people are getting into it. It’s so easy. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection and a digital camera, and you are ready to go.

Ed: How would I go about finding somebody’s vlog on the Internet?

Dionne: Well, there are a few vlog aggregators that exist. One in particular is called mefedia.com, and you just use it almost like you do any sort of search engine like Google. You type in the subject that you’re interested in, dogs or golf or whatever, and it will give you a list of different vlogs that are out there.

Ed: So there are, basically, affinities of vlogs that if you are a golfer you can find out about golf on somebody’s vlog.

Dionne: For sure, and more are being created everyday. I mean, pretty much any subject you’re interested in you can find a vlog about.

Ed: So is this a unique US phenomenon or are these worldwide?

Dionne: Oh, for sure it’s going global. I talked to people in Australia, Canada, Japan who are all doing this. People have vlogs on travel, a travel vlog, for example, someone who had gone to Tibet and had found a water buffalo to a woman up in Canada who videotaped herself laughing because she is a so-called laugh therapist.

Ed: Now, are younger people likely to be vloggers since they are more attuned to technology?

Dionne: I think that’s right, but I did talk to a surprising number of people who are a little older who are into it as well. I mean, really, it depends on your level of comfortableness with the technology, but it’s so easy now and the price of digital videocameras are coming down, so more and more people are getting into it.

Ed: Are some of these vlogs just sort of rants and raves, much like blogs are?

Dionne: Absolutely, and I think you can think of it almost like a public access channel online. I mean you’re getting into some of weird mundane content. Some are pretty interesting, though, depending on what your interests are.

Ed: Now I understand that there are some commercial aspects to this. Some of these vlogs are pretty good.

Dionne: That’s right. I think we may be seeing more and more advertising pop up on the video vlogs too. So we’ll see what the future holds for vlogs.

Host: Just how popular is vlogging? There are no real numbers, but one vlog map program shows massive sites throughout the US, Canada, western Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.