A blog (a truncation of “weblog“)[1] is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. In the 2000s, blogs were often the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, multi-author blogs (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other “microblogging” systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
History
The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger[5] on December 17, 1997. The short form “blog” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in May 1999.[6][7][8] Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used “blog” as both a noun and verb (“to blog”, meaning “to edit one’s weblog or to post to one’s weblog”) and devised the term “blogger” in connection with Pyra Labs’ Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.[9]
Main articles: History of blogging and online diary
The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger[5] on December 17, 1997. The short form “blog” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in May 1999.[6][7][8] Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used “blog” as both a noun and verb (“to blog”, meaning “to edit one’s weblog or to post to one’s weblog”) and devised the term “blogger” in connection with Pyra Labs’ Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.[9]
Origins
Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, Byte Information Exchange (BIX) and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists,[10] and bulletin board systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software created running conversations with “threads”. Threads are topical connections between messages on a virtual “corkboard“.[further explanation needed]
Tim Berners-Lee created what is considered by Encyclopedia Britannica to be “the first ‘blog'” in 1992 to discuss the progress made on creating the World Wide Web and software used for it.[11]
From June 14, 1993, Mosaic Communications Corporation maintained their “What’s New”[12] list of new websites, updated daily and archived monthly. The page was accessible by a special “What’s New” button in the Mosaic web browser.
In November 1993 Ranjit Bhatnagar started writing about interesting sites, pages and discussion groups he found on the internet, as well as some personal information, on his website Moonmilk, arranging them chronologically in a special section called Ranjit’s HTTP Playground.[13] Other early pioneers of blogging, such as Justin Hall, credit him with being an inspiration.[14]
The earliest instance of a commercial blog was on the first business to consumer Web site created in 1995 by Ty, Inc., which featured a blog in a section called “Online Diary”. The entries were maintained by featured Beanie Babies that were voted for monthly by Web site visitors.[15]