Nationwide, a growing number of "vloggers," or "video bloggers," such as Prodoehl are posting primitive videos online and inviting viewers to respond with text or video reactions. The trend is new enough that it's difficult to know just how many people are vlogging — even leading research firms such as the Pew Internet & American Life Project have no data on it. But it's likely that the number of vloggers is still small. One indication: A recent check of the Yahoo video blogging group showed it had about 1,200 members.

Can you vlog a dead horse? Only if you make a video of it and post it on the Web.

After blogging came photo blogging and then, suddenly last year, video blogging. Video bloggers, also known as vloggers, are people who regularly post videos on the Internet, creating primitive shows for anyone who cares to watch. Some vlogs are cooking shows, some are minidocumentaries, some are mock news programs and some are almost art films.

Perhaps it's a testament to the vitality of the new genre, but weblogs are not only multiplying, they are morphing. Just visit the weblog hosted by future-oriented California author Howard Rheingold (www.smartmobs.com), a companion to his recent book, "SmartMobs," to see some of the creative energy driving the evolution of these Web-based journals.

For example, there are "moblogs," for mobile weblogs, which capture updated postings, in words and pictures, from the latest generation of camera-enabled cellphones. Audioblogs (constantly updated links to music and audio files) and vlogs (video blogs) are also represented.