Happy belated birthday, blogosphere! In case you didn't know, December 17 was the 10th anniversary of the term 'Weblog,' which was shortened to 'blog' at some point. The term started with a man, Jorn Barger, who used the phrase to describe his Web page where he posted links of interesting things he found around the Internet.
Back in 1997, blogging was hardly the phenomenon it is today. Some of the most conservative estimates put the number of true 'weblogs' at that time in the lower double digits. These days no one can really say how many blogs are out there. Technorati, a blog tracking service, estimates that 120,000 new blogs pop up every day. In April the site was tracking just over 72 million blogs.
The blog has morphed from its early days as a way of sharing cool finds (like Digg minus the voting), to the primary form of information dispersal on the Web. Blogging has become the format of choice in the fast-paced world of tech (like Switched.com) and politics, and has empowered a generation of new journalists. Now the New York Times has blogs, the Daily Kos is one of the most important forces in the Democratic party, and even CNN has the YouTube-esque iReport citizen journalism program. Like it or not, in less than 10 years time, blogs have completely altered the face of media.
The 'Blog' Turns 10 - Switched: Gadgets, Tech, Digital Stuff for the Rest of Us
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