History of Weblogs

A ‘blog’ is a sort of online personal diary where anyone can reveal his/her innermost thoughts, feelings, desires, dreams, ambitions, hopes, fears… you get the point.

Where Did The Word Blog Come From?

The word Blog is short for ‘Web Log’. The history of blogs is as fascinating as the potential that blogging has for your business.

The world’s first blog was probably ‘Open Diary’ created by Dave Winer. The term itself was likely coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997 (source: Wikipedia).

The short form, “blog,” was coined by Peter Merholz. He (jokingly) split the word “weblog” into the phrase “We blog” in the sidebar of his own blog in April or May 1999.

Evan Williams, co-founder of the micro-blogging network Twitter, first used ‘blog’ as a verb to indicate the action of posting a message to your blog.

The first known use of a blog on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.

What Is The Word Blog Short For?

Recently, I was asked this question by email.

Interesting enough, when I first started blogging in 2003, one of today’s well-known bloggers emailed me to ask a nearly identical question!

“What Is The Word Blog Short For?”

The short answer is: Web Log.

A blog is a log or record or diary of various kinds of information, published in a reverse-chronological order.

So, now you know!

What Exactly Is A Blog?

There is a lot of confusion among beginners about blogs and blogging.

Yes, it’s a website. With one small difference. It lists posts ordered by date, in a personal journal format, and is easier to create than a website – just involves typing into a form and hitting the PUBLISH button.

The Chicago Tribune explained it more concisely.

“A Weblog is a Web site that maintains a constantly updated list of links to other sites; those links can deal with any subject or focus on a particular one. Webloggers typically offer pithy, sarcastic commentary about the links.”

And that, in essence, is what a blog is!

What Does Blog Stand For

At first, blogging was like regular diary writing – just done on the Web for everyone to see. As it evolved, a blog became useful for a variety of other purposes.

As a publishing platform that’s an extension of you and your thoughts, opinions, feelings and more, a blog can stand for ANYTHING!

Personal blogs are about individuals and the (not so exciting?!) events in their life.

Corporate blogs are run by businesses, and can be used to share news and information with clients, vendors and the public.

Genre-specific blogs focus on sharing stuff about niche topics with a select audience that enjoys them.

Media blogs leverage the multi-media Web, adding sound, light and movement to the Web.

Today, blogs are rich online resources of content and information, presented in a chronological and categorized fashion, in a way that’s both interesting and useful to consume.