Blogs are everywhere. They're on news sites, corporate sites, personal Web pages and just about every other genre of Web site. Some are simply online journals chronicling some adventure or another, while others are written around a central theme and ask readers to create their own free blogs in response, creating a community of sorts.

Three-year-old tBlog, is a content-based community site built around themed blogs. The company was born as the result of a happy accident. Site creator and programmer Taylor Bayouth was looking for a new venture and decided that he would create a new company built around the next hot technology he heard about. This was three years ago, when only about four or five blogging platforms existed and there wasn't really a need for more because hardly anyone had even heard the term Weblog, or blog.

This didn't stop Bayouth who, along with a colleague or two, "wanted to do something different" than what was out there. tBlog saw that blogging had much more potential beyond simply being someone's online journal or a way for company executives to share their thoughts with customers or employees.

The start-up saw the potential for "blogging infused with community," says Bayouth. And what better audience for this type of site than the Gen X and Gen Y demographic? They're young, looking to meet people with similar interests, looking for potential dates and - at least the ones who spend time chatting online - love to talk about themselves.

Last month tBlog added a new "thought-matching" feature designed to make it even easier for its bloggers to connect with like-minded folks. Dubbed tMatch, the new feature is meant to bring tBlog users together based on similar goals, hobbies and thought patterns rather than on purely visual aspects or random encounters.

tMatch uses a sophisticated algorithm that essentially takes the blogs and "boils them down to unique concepts," searches out other blogs with similar "vectors" and presents the user with a network of potential friends or matches, said Bayouth. "We have so much data on everyone on the site, we decided to build a tool sophisticated enough to extract text that defines who they are," he said.

We have launched a new feature we are very excited about, it's called "tMatch" and no it is not a dating tool. tMatch is our way of building suggested networks of individuals who may have commonalities such as favorite bands, movies, books or possibly share the same political views or even writing styles. After months of testing we are finally launching tMatch is beta mode under the "tFriends" tab. If you don't see your matches it is only because we have not learned enough about you, and for us to do that you simply have to blog. The more you blog, the better your matches and the bigger your network will become. Feel free to send feedback to support@tblog.com, as we are very interested to hear your thoughts.

On a separate note you should know our launch was an overall success. Nickster and I are spending our days and nights taking care of bugs, and supporting the new site. tBlog is getting better and better. There are a few up-and-coming features such as replied comment notification, further support for "pro" users, and an invite service so you can link up with friends outside of tBlog. We value your feedback, so please send your support queries to the address above and we will continue striving to make tBlog better and better. Thanks!

-Rocky

If you haven't already noticed, tBlog went through a bit of a metamorphosis last night. Let me tell you what exactly is going on here and how much you're going to dig the new and improved tBlog!

Firstly, let's talk about what is going on behind the scenes.

• New servers, snappy blogging!
  We love upgrades, and we think you will too. :-)
  
  
• New Nickster!
  Yes, Nickster is now part of tBlog's inner circle. (Don't even try asking him what the "t" stands for...)
  
  
• More Spam!
  Just kidding, there is no more spam.
  
  
• Improved Support
  A real team, dedicated to getting your support issues resolved. (Is this a promise? Yes it is.)

And now a little about the juiced up inter-workings of the site! Yay!

• Skins
  Browse our free themes and skin your blog in 2 seconds. (3 seconds if the load is high)
  
  
• Editable Styles
  If you want to dig deep, really deep.
  
  
• Flickr Images
  We love the kids over at Flickr, so we thought we'd partner up.
  
  
• Enhanced Posting Interface
  Change your fonts, colors, sizes and scale pictures all in real-time!
  
  
• Photo Commenting
  No we're not "trying to be MySpace", we're just offering photo commenting. Geez.
  
  
• New tShop Items
  No shirt no service. (no shoes is cool)
  
  
• Featured Profiles
  No, featured bloggers are NOT gone for good. In the meantime, click here to submit your profile for consideration.
  
  
• Pretty Icons, Better Navigation, Snazzy Logo
  Finally a logo that doesn't bring your internet connection to a crawl.

That's it? NO, but my fingers are getting tired and I think it's time you go check some of this stuff out for yourself. This update has been a long time coming, and we want to thank everyone for supporting us! If you're asking yourself, "Hey, I wonder what I can do for tBlog", well, the answer to that is - Tell your friends to get their free blog today! We love referrals... :-)

Sincerely,
Your friends at tBlog