Blogging has come a long way from when the first post was uploaded online. Today, they have become such an integral part of our lives, both personally and in business. Almost everything you read online today comes from blogs. This is from how to repair a phone, to writing a professional a CV, cooking spaghetti and even how to kiss.
The blogging we know now is not as it was ten, fifteen years ago. Just like human beings, blogging is also evolving. The art of writing, the styles and even uses of blogs are changing. So here is a timeline of how blogging started and the changes that have made it possible for us to enjoy them today.
1994-998 (blogging infant stages)
The very first blog can be traced to the year 1994, created by Justin Hall, a US freelance journalist. At the time was a student at Swarthmore University and the content he created was not referred to as a blog. It was just listed as a personal homepage.
Then in 1997, the word blog was invented by John Barger. It was believed to be derived from the act of logging on the web, hence web-log. It was later shortened to just “blog”. These blogs operated manually and had no support like content-sharing.
2000-2004 (Blogging teen-age)
Like the teenage years in human beings, blogging grew exponentially in these years. In the year 2000, there were a total of 23 blogs on the internet. By 2005, this number had grown to 50 million. The popularity of blogs went up the roof. Blogs such as Gizmodo and the Huffington Post became popular at this time.
There as also a rise in the development of blogging platforms and other blogging services. These include WordPress (2003), Technorati a search engine for blogs and Audio Blogger(2003)the first podcasting service.
In 2004, video blogs were introduced. YouTube was launched in 2005 and Adsense was also launched around the same time, making it the first ad network. Bloggers were able to make money from advertisements on their platforms using Adsense. People also made a lot of money teaching others how to blog and how to make money from blogging.
2005-2010 (Blogging and mainstream media)
Since blogs were becoming so popular, mainstream media also wanted the piece of the pie. By 2010, major media houses like CNN had partnered with individual bloggers to get into the world of blogging. Almost every media house has their own blog by now. This was also the time that showed a steady rise in microblogs. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were used to share content done on blogs.
Ten years ago, blogs were used as sources of information, but with the advent of social media platforms, they are quickly overtaking blogs as sources of info.
The future of blogging
It is interesting to see how blogging has evolved over the years and obviously the logical step is what it will be in future. As at now, blogging has employed many as influencer marketers and content creators, and online brand managers. But, it has also been used negatively to defame, cyber harass brands and individuals, fake advertising and even in political propaganda. The truth of the matter however is, the blogging scene will not be as it is now, in years to come. But as at now, this is the place to be.