In January 1994, Hall, a student at Swarthmore College, was the first person to make a blog. His site, called “Justin’s Links,” was a list of links to different websites on the web. In 1997, online diarist Jorn Barger coined the word “weblog” which meant “logging the web.”
Early blog’s emerged as online diaries. People kept an ongoing account of their personal lives. Most modern blogs only contained written words. However, with a popularity and increase in newer forms of technology, blogs also contain photo and video entries. Bloggers can be anyone such as your neighborhood housewife, a graduating high school senior, a lonely diarists or even journalists working for local newspapers. Blogs are usually hosted by blog hosting services. These services allow an individual to open a free account and start their own blog. This method has grown more and more, being that more people are beginning to start their own blogs.
Eventually, after a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years following:
· Bruce Ableson launched Open Diary in October 1998, which grew to over a thousand online diaries. Open Diary became the first blog where readers could add comments to other writers’ blog entries.
· Andrew Smales created Diaryland in September 1999, which focused more on a personal diary community.
· In December 2002, Gawker was launched. This was the first website to ignite the gossip-blog boom that is very popular today.
· Google launched AdSense in June 2003, a program that matches advertising to blog content.
· Merriam-Webster Dictionary declares “blog” the Word of the Year in 2004.
· The Huffington Post is launched in 2005 and becomes the fourth most linked blog in 2006.
Today, over 32 million Americans read blogs. There are over 133 million blogs today. Blogs have become an essential part of the World Wide Web. Once, blogs were only personal diary, now blogs range from being personal to political.
Every blog is different. Every blog has a purpose. |
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