As we follow the path of today’s blogs it is interesting to reflect on their path to date. As they become more mainstream we will see changes. Mostly that blogs will become embedded in the way we receive information from all ‘news’ services in the world. Because of information overload we will need to choose what we receive. It is no longer like scanning a newspaper for the items that grab our attention. There is so much information out there now that we need to choose and filter what we receive before we receive it.
Looking back though ,,,
1994: It all began with Justin Hall a College sophomore publishing a diary on a Web page, generally
considered the first Weblog.
1997-1999: The number of personal Web pages, now known as
“blogs,” grows rapidly. A small San Francisco
company creates free blog software, sparking an explosion of
new Web diaries on everything from sex to politics to movies
to crocheting.
2000: During the 2000 presidential election recount,
free-lance journalist Josh Marshall launches the
“TalkingPointsMemo,” which gains a large following
as a political blog.
2002: Markos Moulitsas Zuniga gains wide attention for his
blog, dailykos.com, which features sharp criticism of the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The Democratic-leaning site later
becomes the largest political site in existence, which gets
millions of “hits” each week.
2003: Presidential candidate Howard Dean starts the first
campaign blog, which he uses to rally thousands of
volunteers and raise more than $20 million.
2004: Jessica Cutler, an intern for U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine,
uses a Senate computer to publish a detailed diary of her
Capitol Hill sex life. She poses for Playboy and lands a
book deal, but DeWine, an Ohio Republican, fires her.
2005: Cleveland blog pioneers George Nemeth and Bill
Callahan start “Meet the Bloggers,” a series of
interviews between mayoral candidates and politicians
that are published on the Internet.
2005-2006: Ohio bloggers get behind Democrat and Iraq
war veteran Paul Hackett, helping him raise $500,000 for a
special congressional race in a heavily Republican district.
He nearly wins and later runs for the U.S. Senate with the
support of many bloggers. Hackett, however, drops out,
citing lack of money and party support.
Today: Depending on where you read there are between thirty and sixty million blogs. A new blog is created
every second of every day, according to Technorati, one of the main blog trackers used on the web today.