Happy birthday to the blog
- By Jack Preston -
- Dec 17, 2012
Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of the blog, a term which millions across the world choose to describe their online written content. In fact, a study conducted earlier this year found that there are currently over 164 million blogs on the internet.
But where does the word originally come from? This morning Virgin Media Business were able to shed some light on its origins: “Fifteen years ago today, the term ‘weblog’ was created by Jorn Barger to describe the way he logged web articles on his Robot Wisdom web page. The term "blog" was later coined by Peter Merholz, who cleverly split the word into the phrase “we blog” in the sidebar of his own blog in 1999.”
Nowadays blogs are not just a tool used by internet savvy contributors, with websites such as the Huffington Post gaining success off the back of the desire shown by millions to both write and consume blog content. Leading public figures, such as Virgin’s Richard Branson, update their blogs on a daily basis, as they recognise the effectiveness of blogs in broadcasting messages and communicating with the wider public.
Read Richard Branson's first ever blog or watch the accompanying video above
The way we consume news, gain insight into the work of governments and businesses, keep in touch with one another and learn more about the world in which we live has drastically changed since the introduction of the blog.
Entrepreneurs and start ups are now able to quickly and effectively relay information about products and services through blogs and social media channels, operating in the same way as larger, more established businesses.
This has greatly levelled the playing field. If an inexperienced entrepreneur wants to share his thoughts on a burning matter then he can put his words down in a blog and publicise through Twitter, the exact same way the likes of Bill Gates and the Virgin Group Founder regularly do. As they have both shown us, blogs are a great way of maintaining a strong public image and showing your customers what’s important to you.
Have you got a favourite blog memory from the past fifteen years? Here’s one of ours – let us know yours below…
By Jack Preston. Content Executive. Tweets at @JackPressedOn
