If you’re a fan of blogs – whether you fancy Perez Hilton and Boing Boing, or your tastes run more towards Daily Kos and Instapundit – you should be celebrating: Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of the “weblog.” Er, maybe. Why maybe? Well, since the blogosphere is known for its strong personalities, infighting and more than a tinge of melodrama, it’s only fitting that no one can agree on exactly when blogging started, or who the first “blogger” was (as for whether you need to allow comments from readers in order to be a real blog, don’t ask).
Jorn Barger is one of the guys who most often gets the nod, since he is credited with coining the term “blog” – a shortened version of the word “weblog.” His daily journal of thoughts and links, known as Jorn Barger’s Robot Wisdom, made its debut on Dec. 17, 1997, and is still going. It’s probably also fitting that the guy who invented the word, one that’s associated (or at least used to be) with independent writing and a dislike of authority, was at one point living on a friend’s couch and has seen little or no personal benefit from his status as the word’s inventor.
Dave Winer is another guy who gets the credit for inventing blogging. Winer’s company, Frontier Software, was an early provider of blog-style publishing tools and Dave’s own weblog (although he didn’t call it that) started in 1996. He’s still blogging too, at scripting.com.
Now there’s Blogger (which was acquired by Google) as well as Typepad and WordPress and LiveJournal, and you can find blog-style pages at sites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. Some “blogs” are effectively magazines and draw tens of millions of unique visitors every month. Boing Boing, a pop-culture blog with Canadian writer Cory Doctorow as one of its founding writers, gets as much traffic as a major metropolitan newspaper. The Huffington Post – a collection of blogs assembled by noted party-thrower and friend to the rich and powerful Arianna Huffington – has also become a phenomenon.
Blogs have been involved in the fall of a president (Matt Drudge first reported on Monica Lewinsky), the fall of a network anchorman (Dan Rather), the fall of a congressman (Trent Lott) and the rehabilitation of a former child actor (Star Trek: TNG‘s Wil Wheaton). Rosie O’Donnell has a blog she posts to daily and so does billionaire businessman Mark Cuban.
In 2005, entrepreneur and former magazine editor Jason Calacanis sold his blog network to America Online for $30-million (U.S.). TechCrunch, a technology blog founded by lawyer Michael Arrington, is estimated to be worth as much as $25-million based on its traffic and advertising revenue. And TMZ.com, a celebrity news blog, has launched its own TV show. So if you see Jorn or Dave, say thanks – although they’re probably busy blogging.