Sunday, November 27, 2005
What Are Blogs? How Have Blogs Developed? PART TWO
As stated in Part One, there were 23 weblogs known to exist in early 1999 according to a list published in Camworld (The Blog Herald: "A Short History of Blogging"). With so few blogs at that time, it is understandable how Rebecca Blood could have stated in The Weblog Handbook,, that "it was easy to read (daily) all of the weblogs on Cameron's list, and most interested people did."
The primary reason why there were relatively few blogs until mid-1999 is that their construction and maintenance required knowledge and skills typically limited to web developers. However, those knowledge and skill requirements ceased in July of 1999 when Pitas, the first free web-based tool designed to enable individuals to publish their own blogs easily and quickly was launched (Hadrian Summitt: "The Chronicles of Blogs"). Once Pitas was available, "suddenly there were hundreds of blogs" (Rebecca Blood: "Weblogs: A History and Perspective").
In August 1999, one month after Pitas was launched, two more blogging services were launched: Blogger, created by Pyra Labs, and Groksoup, created by Paul Kedrosky. By late 1999, Edit this Page and Velocinews (both under the umbrella of Userland) were released, which further increased the number of blogs (Jenna Thomson: "Blog History"). Now anyone could use any of these software products to quickly and easily create blogs without knowing anything about HTML or the structure of the World Wide Web. Futhermore, in late September of 1999, Diaryland was created, although at that time, personal journals/diaries were not considered to be blogs.
Early blogs were small in number and primarily or all about commenting on and linking to other websites; they pre-surfed and filtered news and information. However, the number of blogs exploded after 1999, and as the numbers increased and continued to increase, the content and format of blogs changed. Blog publishing software, especially Blogger, gave people the opportunity to dedicate a post to whatever topic(s) s/he chose to write about. Consequently, new blogs weren't just pre-surfing and filtering news and information as earlier blogs had done; instead, they were being used to tell personal stories, facilitate personal and group discussions, communicate news events, tell jokes, communicate other topics of interest, and explore new technology. Furthermore, they were being created and used by individuals, groups, schools, libraries, and businesses with little knowledge of and sometimes little interest in the nuances of the Web (ibid).
To say that there has been an explosion of blogs may be an understandment. According to Perseus, at the end of the first quarter in 2000, there were an estimated 29,500 blogs, and by the end of that year, 197,000 blogs. By the end of 2001, there were 951,000 blogs, and by the end of 2005, there is expected to be over 53.3 million blogs.
With tens of millions of blogs on the Web with varying content and format, definitions of a blog had to change and they did. Many definitions, but not all, now include personal journals and diaries as blogs, although purists, such as Ryan Kawailani Ozawa, continue to disagree. Nonetheless, whether a purist or not, a blog has become much more than it originally was. In the Fall 2003 issue of the Nieman Reports, Rebecca Blood adopted a broader definition, and defined a blog to be "a frequently updated Web site, with posts arranged in reverse chronological order, so new entries are always on top," although later in the same article she seems to retreat from that definition by adding that "Hypertext is fundamental to the practice of Weblogging."
Wikipedia defines a blog as "a website for which an individual or group generates text, photographs, viedo, audio files, and/or links, typically but not always on a daily or otherwise regular basis." According to Merriam-Webster, a blog is "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer." Neither of these definitions suggests a blog must have links to and commentary about other Web sites. However, Ask Yahoo! retains a more traditional notion of a blog by defining a blog as a "personal or noncommercial web site that uses a dated log format (usually with the most recent addition at the top of the page) and contains links to other web sites along with commentary about those sites.
Perhaps, in time, blogs will become more standardized and commodified, and eventually there will be one definition that everyone agrees on. However, until that time, Wikipedia's definition is the one that I prefer because it goes beyond blogs comprised entirely of the written word to include photo, video, and audio blogs.
END OF PART TWO
The primary reason why there were relatively few blogs until mid-1999 is that their construction and maintenance required knowledge and skills typically limited to web developers. However, those knowledge and skill requirements ceased in July of 1999 when Pitas, the first free web-based tool designed to enable individuals to publish their own blogs easily and quickly was launched (Hadrian Summitt: "The Chronicles of Blogs"). Once Pitas was available, "suddenly there were hundreds of blogs" (Rebecca Blood: "Weblogs: A History and Perspective").
In August 1999, one month after Pitas was launched, two more blogging services were launched: Blogger, created by Pyra Labs, and Groksoup, created by Paul Kedrosky. By late 1999, Edit this Page and Velocinews (both under the umbrella of Userland) were released, which further increased the number of blogs (Jenna Thomson: "Blog History"). Now anyone could use any of these software products to quickly and easily create blogs without knowing anything about HTML or the structure of the World Wide Web. Futhermore, in late September of 1999, Diaryland was created, although at that time, personal journals/diaries were not considered to be blogs.
Early blogs were small in number and primarily or all about commenting on and linking to other websites; they pre-surfed and filtered news and information. However, the number of blogs exploded after 1999, and as the numbers increased and continued to increase, the content and format of blogs changed. Blog publishing software, especially Blogger, gave people the opportunity to dedicate a post to whatever topic(s) s/he chose to write about. Consequently, new blogs weren't just pre-surfing and filtering news and information as earlier blogs had done; instead, they were being used to tell personal stories, facilitate personal and group discussions, communicate news events, tell jokes, communicate other topics of interest, and explore new technology. Furthermore, they were being created and used by individuals, groups, schools, libraries, and businesses with little knowledge of and sometimes little interest in the nuances of the Web (ibid).
To say that there has been an explosion of blogs may be an understandment. According to Perseus, at the end of the first quarter in 2000, there were an estimated 29,500 blogs, and by the end of that year, 197,000 blogs. By the end of 2001, there were 951,000 blogs, and by the end of 2005, there is expected to be over 53.3 million blogs.
With tens of millions of blogs on the Web with varying content and format, definitions of a blog had to change and they did. Many definitions, but not all, now include personal journals and diaries as blogs, although purists, such as Ryan Kawailani Ozawa, continue to disagree. Nonetheless, whether a purist or not, a blog has become much more than it originally was. In the Fall 2003 issue of the Nieman Reports, Rebecca Blood adopted a broader definition, and defined a blog to be "a frequently updated Web site, with posts arranged in reverse chronological order, so new entries are always on top," although later in the same article she seems to retreat from that definition by adding that "Hypertext is fundamental to the practice of Weblogging."
Wikipedia defines a blog as "a website for which an individual or group generates text, photographs, viedo, audio files, and/or links, typically but not always on a daily or otherwise regular basis." According to Merriam-Webster, a blog is "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer." Neither of these definitions suggests a blog must have links to and commentary about other Web sites. However, Ask Yahoo! retains a more traditional notion of a blog by defining a blog as a "personal or noncommercial web site that uses a dated log format (usually with the most recent addition at the top of the page) and contains links to other web sites along with commentary about those sites.
Perhaps, in time, blogs will become more standardized and commodified, and eventually there will be one definition that everyone agrees on. However, until that time, Wikipedia's definition is the one that I prefer because it goes beyond blogs comprised entirely of the written word to include photo, video, and audio blogs.
END OF PART TWO
