The History of Blogging
Part One
So, here I am, blogging about the principles of storytelling and how they can be applied to your content marketing efforts. And yes, that means occasionally blogging about blogging itself.
Layers upon layers.
How much more meta can you get?
Then again, not everyone who writes novels (or any writer for that matter) needs to offer their own treatise on the written word.
Still, I believe there’s value in tracing the roots: examining where blogging began, how it’s changed, and what’s next on the horizon.
Personally, I find the story behind blogging pretty fascinating. And I think it’s still packed with value for anyone interested in content marketing today.
Blogs remain a strategic way to establish authority, connect with audiences, and keep your brand’s voice front and center.
Ready to see where the story leads?
Let’s dig in.
A Walk Down Memory Lane
I’m probably dating myself here, but do you remember LiveJournal?
If you grew up in the nineties, as I did, you probably remember the popular journaling and networking site where friends (and strangers) published their most innermost thoughts online.
I’ll be honest. I never had my own LiveJournal account. I had some friends who did and loved to talk about it—my wife, to this day, shares fond memories of her own use of LiveJournal.
Being an incredibly private person, I kept my own journal in a notebook, using pen and paper, where I scribbled my deepest, most private thoughts—and kept it to myself.
I never wrote with the intention that others might read my journal one day and gain some insight into my angsty, pre-teen mind. And reflecting back on the kind of disjointed and uninformed thoughts I had in those days, it’s probably for the best.
But I remember the excitement some of my friends had around LiveJournal. They genuinely thought what other people openly shared online was interesting or insightful.
You could be somewhat vulnerable and genuine.
You might write something that would resonate with someone else, in a way that could only show up in writing, and not in a conversation.
It was even an ice-breaker, an opportunity for many of us to find our people.
A Trip Back in Time
Let’s go back a bit further.
Remember the early nineties? When things were (seemingly) less complicated and we didn’t stare at our tiny screens for hours upon hours a day?
For some perspective, here are some significant events that took place in the early nineties:
In 1990, we launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit, which revolutionized our understanding of the universe.
In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee launched the first website, marking the birth of the internet as we know it today.
1992 was when the LA Riots took place, highlighting racial tensions, police brutality, and systemic inequality in the U.S.
1992 also saw the “Dream Team” (featuring Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, et al.) dominate the Olympics.
1993 was an iconic year for me as a kid. Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park premiered. The movie was more than just a major box office hit; it’s still a timeless favorite for many.
Then there’s 1994.
Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa. Sony released the PlayStation. Kurt Cobain passed away. O.J. Simpson’s infamous police chase was broadcast live. And for some of the younger ones out there, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles were born.
So what else happened in 1994? The birth of the Blog.
How it all began
At only 19 years old, Justin Hall (then just a student) created the first blog: Links.net
At the time, it wasn’t called a blog yet.
Hall’s site consisted entirely of a list of links (hence the name); brief posts sharing links to websites he personally liked, as well as his thoughts around the websites he shared. He also shared his own unique content.
Ten years later, the New York Times credited him as the “founding father of personal bloggers.”
It’s worth noting here that many early “blogs” were created by computer programmers, which only detailed more technical subject matters.
But it was Hall that set the stage for others, less tech-savvy like myself, to create their own blogs and share their personal thoughts and experiences.
Etymology of a Blog
Before the term “blog” was coined, blogs were referred to as “online journals,” “diaries,” or “personal homepages.”
It wasn’t until 1997 that these “online journals” were referred to as “weblogs,” coined by Jorn Barger, founder of the Robot Wisdom blog.
In essence, a “weblog” is a log, meant to describe the process of “logging the web.” It’s a written log that’s published on the web.
Get it? Weblog.
Then 1999 rolled around.
It was the year Napster was launched. The year astronomers discovered the first multi-planet system beyond our own. It was also the year Pokémon was introduced in the U.S., fueling a national gaming phenomenon among kids and some adults. Oh, and one of the best sci-fi films of all time was released: The Matrix.
And remember the Y2K scare?
1999 was also the year we officially adopted the term “blog.”
Peter Merholz is credited with playfully breaking “weblog” into “we blog” on his own site, which led to the shorter “blog.”
The rest is history.
In the next part of this series, I’ll dive into some of the first blogging platforms and the impact they had on the internet and society at large.