You may think that blogging is something that has only come into existence since the invention of the internet, but you would be wrong.
It goes all the way back to people keeping personal diaries or any other form of writing down what has been happening in the world around ordinary people. In fact, you could say that the old cavemen drawings were blogs where they wrote down how the hunt went, giving hints and tips on better way to slay the mighty mammoth for instance.
The term “blog” is as wordplay of “Weblog”. They are pieces of text that are updated far more regularly than any other web page. They allow an author to let their personality shine through. Basically, they are online diaries that are open to the general public.
Origins of the Word Blog
I was mainly interested in finding out who the first person was to call a blog a blog. As with everything in the world, there are a number of stories on what could be the answer to that question.
One option is that M. Rees and G Raikundalia used the term in a paper that they wrote for the Bond University, which is on the Gold Coast.
However, most people agree that the founder was Jorn Barger, who started Robot Wisdom on 1997. He used the term weblog because he was trying to make a log of the web. By 1999, Peter Merholz made the term weblog shorter and called it a blog.
Blogging Terminology
When you first start looking into the blogosphere (this is the world of blogging, by the way), you may feel like you’ve moved to some sort of foreign countries. Bloggers (people who blog) have their own jargon and slang. There are a number of terms that you are likely to come across quite regularly. Blogroll, for instance, is a list on a blog that links to other blogs.
This is what bloggers use to build their name up or link to affiliate websites. A blogsnob is slang for someone who writes a blog but doesn’t reply to comments (a big blogging no-no). A BlogSnob (note the capitals) on the other hand, is when blogs and personal sites offer free advertising space. A b-blog is a business blog. A klog on the other hand, is the same as a blog but it isn’t public.
It can only be seen by people who have been granted access and it is most commonly found on intranet servers. A moblog is a mobile blog and a vlog is a video blog. One last great term that you will only find in blogging is “dooce”.
When you have been dooced, you have been sacked from your job due to information you put on a blog. This stems from Heather Armstrong, who had her own blogging website dooce.com, where she slated her employer and consequently lost her job.
Back in those days (2002), this was still a big deal and quite unheard of. Nowadays, employers ask potential employees for their Facebook login details to see what they get up to in private time.
Blogging Services
Blogging services have transformed the blogging landscape and created large revenue streams for a lot of businesses.
In the past, however, you would have needed quite extensive knowledge of html coding if you wanted to write a blog.
There you have it, the fascinating world of the origin of blog writing and blog management. Make sure you don’t become a blogsnob and find a BlogSnob that leads to you getting dooced!