Welcome to the EarthLink Protection Blog. We are a group of EarthLink employees who have been granted the opportunity to speak directly to consumers about the stuff we work on every day. Our jobs range from building tools that eliminate spyware to lobbying lawmakers to pass laws against spam. We're down in the trenches every day fighting to make the Internet a better place, and we think we have a lot to say.

We even have our very own Mission Statement: The EarthLink Protection Blog provides information and tools to enable Internet users to stop online hazards and annoyances and get more out of their Internet experience.

Although this blog is sanctioned by EarthLink, none of the stuff we write has been filtered through our PR guys or approved by a team of lawyers. So we can't promise that everything we say is going to be 100% perfect. We're human, we may make mistakes. We can promise that if we discover a mistake, we'll point out our error and correct it. Also, many of our remarks are our individual opinions, so they may not necessarily reflect the opinions of the company as a whole.

Since our mission is really about helping you, the consumer, we'd love to hear your feedback. Feel free to shoot us an email, or leave a comment below one of our posts. We may not be able to respond to every email or comment we receive, but we will read them all and listen to what you have to say. If you just need help with your EarthLink service, please visit our Support Center.

What is a blog?
If you're new to all this blogging stuff, you might be wondering what the heck a blog is. Good question. A blog (short for web log) is a website containing dated entries. Think of it as an online journal. Blogs are usually written in the first person by an individual or group of folks, and they update regularly, sometimes every day. There are many different kinds of blogs including corporate sponsored blogs like ours, personal blogs where people post intimate details about their lives, and topical blogs about everything from politics to mountain biking.

The best way to understand blogs is to read some. There are millions of blogs on the web, but here are some that we think are pretty darn good: Gawker, Scobleizer, Boing Boing, Defective Yeti, and Little.Yellow.Different.

If you'd like to learn more about blogs or try creating one of your own, click here.

If you're serious about blogging, we heartily recommend using one of these advanced blogging services: TypePad and Blogger.