The Origins and History of Blogs
So when did blogging begin? Although blogs are a recent invention, the idea is not new. Blogs evolved from online diaries that people kept from the earliest days of the Internet. Blogs as we think of them today are a combination of a personal journal, a message board and a news site. Let’s look at the milestones of blogging.
1994 – It is uncertain who started the very first blog. Justin Hall is credited by some to be the “founding father” of blogging for starting his “Proto-Blog” in December 1994 while still a student at Swarthmore College. Justin maintained this online journaling for 11 years.
1997 – Jorn Barger first used the term “web log” to describe a simple website where people post interesting links that they found while surfing the net.
1998 – Open Diary launched their website which would grow to thousands. Open Diary is credited with adding the ability for readers to make comments
1999 – Peter Merholz breaks weblog apart into “We Blog” This was quickly adopted and shortened to blog. LiveJournal and Blogger.com were launched as the first hosted blog tools.
2002 – Heather Armstrong is fired for discussing her job in her personal blog which was named “Dooce.” Dooced becomes the term that means “Fired for blogging.”
2004 – Merriam-Webster the prominent dictionary publisher announced that “Blog” was the word of the year. 2004 marked a turning point where blogging became adopted into every day life.
By November 2007 there are over 100 million blogs being tracked. Millions of people look to blogs as their source for information, news or just a good laugh.