Communication has always been the key in the internet world, which is how the phenomenon of the blogger first arose. Originally relying on awkward, rather clunky methods like email lists and electronic bulletin boards, people began to wish for websites that would function more as diary pages, yet which would still allow for back-and-forth responses. All they needed was for someone to write the code and create such pages.

Enter the blog software. It took many forms in its early days in the mid-1990s, often just allowing the blogger to post text entries day by day, still without any response capability from readers. Some of the earliest software did manage to create forums where “threads” could be created, people posting one after another on specified topics. But eventually programs developed that allowed readers to comment on a single diary-type entry, and this was when the real blogs began.

While 1998 was the year the world first saw a blogging site as it’s known today (Open Diary, established in October), the big year for blogging seems to have been 1999, since it witnessed the debut of sites like LiveJournal, Pitas.com, Diaryland, and the well-known www.blogger.com site. Even the word “blog” was coined in this year. It was a shortened form of “weblog,” first used in 1997 by Jorn Barger on his “Robot Wisdom Weblog.” In 1999, Peter Merholz broke the word down to the phrase “we blog,” and finally Evan Williams at Pyra Labs popularized the use of ” a blog” as a noun, and “to blog” as a verb.

Once multi-member blogging sites were established, the phenomenon took off in a big way. In 2003, WordPress, another major site, was introduced, based on open source blogging software. As blogging grew in popularity, the use and value of blogs became more and more apparent, and in more realms than anyone had dreamt of being possible.

In the short time since blogs were introduced, they have risen to prominence as entertainment gossip sites, pages where businesses connect with customers, sites for following people’s favorite teams or athletes, and even sites for keeping an eye on politicians or where politicians can get their own messages out. The blogger appears to be the great communicator of the day. Whatever need anyone perceives, there will be someone on a blog to post an answer. And all the while, these blogs retain their original purpose for the majority of people by simply providing a diary site where they can post their thoughts, and where people can respond to them.

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