Brief History of Blogs
by:
Andy Wibbels
So wherever
did all these blogs move from? How did they get from an underground geek toy to a thought
tool that has revolutionized politics, journalism, marketing and the media?
I always find that once
I discover just about a new technology or way of doing thing
online, the geeks have already been there (and I say the word 'geek' with complete feeling - I'm one too!). Before business became indivisible
from the computer, email or the internet, the academics and tinkerers were there first, kicking the tires and playing with the technology. Blogging was no exception.
Many of the earliest cyberspace geeks wrote online journals description engrossing links and points of view. As this was before programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, everything was done by hand - and that was a brobdingnagian hassle. Each time you updated the site, you ran the risk of breaking links inside the website and deed your readers stranded with the alarming 'page not found' error. Eventually, the computer programmers and web designers became fed up with all of this instructions activity and created their own code to alter the process of change
their journal websites. Thus the weblog was born.
In 1999, a website called Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/) launched, offering free blogs to anybody and everybody that wanted them. Blogger provided the diary tool for free as well as the hosting space to host a blog. Millions of folk from all over the earth logged on and start creating their own weblogs.
The largest language in the earth had begun. Blogs have changed the way academics do research, journalists write, families connect and politicians fundraise. It was only a matter of time before businesses woke up and complete the power of blogging for marketing online.
Blogging provides a way for companies and customers to meet on common ground to talk just about what excites them and does them tick. It as well allows them to closely track wherever
and under what circumstances their products are being talked just about online.
Today, blogging continues to grow at a swift pace with much than 400,000 posts additional per day and 12,000 new blogs being created every day. Millions of folk look to blogs for a nice laugh, a great idea, a fantastic tip or an instant analysis. The blogosphere doubles in size
every 5 months, allowing anyone, anywhere, in any language, to do their mark in the earth to share their ideas, passion and products.
'Blog' was the word of the year for 2004 according to Merriam-Webster, the famed wordbook
publisher. The year 2004 marked a turning point for blogs as a wanted
after media format. Now it was seen as a venue for gathering large audiences of devoted readers who used blogs to supplement, compliment and fact-check their nightly news.
My favorite milestone for blogging was once
'Blogs' appeared as a category on the Danger game show. I'll take blogging for one thousand, Alex!
Copyright © 2005 Andy Wibbels
About Andy: Andy Wibbels is a blogging evangelist and creator of the Easy Bake Weblogs seminar that has helped hundreds of small businesses all over the earth leverage blogs and RSS news feeds to increase profits and save time. You can transfer
his free special report on business and blogs at http://easybakeweblogs.com/.
