Editing Blog (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of blogging|online diary}}
[[File:Eastcampusfire glog crop.png|thumb|left|An early example of a "diary" style blog consisting of text and images transmitted wirelessly in [[Real-time computing|real-time]] from a [[wearable computer]] with [[head-up display]], February 22, 1995]]

The term "weblog" was coined by [[Jorn Barger]]<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://archive.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/12/blog_anniversary |title=After 10 Years of Blogs, the Future's Brighter Than Ever |access-date=June 5, 2008 | magazine=Wired |date=December 17, 2007}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6794172 |title=It's the links, stupid |newspaper=The Economist |date=April 20, 2006 |access-date=June 5, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://peterme.com/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991013021124/http://peterme.com/index.html |archive-date=October 13, 1999 |title=Peterme.com |last=Merholz |first=Peter |access-date=June 5, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kottke.org/03/08/its-weblog-not-web-log|last=Kottke |first=Jason|author-link=Jason Kottke|title=It's 'weblog' not 'web log'|work=[[kottke.org]]|date=August 26, 2003|access-date=June 5, 2008}}</ref> Shortly thereafter, [[Evan Williams (Internet entrepreneur)|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 (service)|Blogger]] product, leading to the popularization of the terms.<ref>[http://www.viralblogcontent.com/Origins_of__22Blog_22_and__22Blogger_22.pdf Origins of "Blog" and "Blogger"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141103083257/http://www.viralblogcontent.com/Origins_of__22Blog_22_and__22Blogger_22.pdf |date=November 3, 2014 }}, American Dialect Society Mailing List (April 20, 2008).</ref>

===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]], [[electronic mailing list|e-mail lists]],<ref>The term "e-log" has been used to describe journal entries sent out via e-mail since as early as March 1996.{{cite web|last=Norman|first=David|title=Users confused by blogs|date=July 13, 2005|url=http://lists.drupal.org/archives/development/2005-07/msg00208.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607235110/http://lists.drupal.org/archives/development/2005-07/msg00208.html|archive-date=June 7, 2007|access-date =June 5, 2008}} {{cite web|title=Research staff and students welcome 'E-Log'|publisher=University College London|date=December 2003|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news-archive/archive/2003/december-2003/latest/newsitem.shtml?03120901|access-date=June 5, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070812190236/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news-archive/archive/2003/december-2003/latest/newsitem.shtml?03120901 |archive-date=August 12, 2007}}</ref> and [[bulletin board system]]s (BBS). In the 1990s, [[Internet forum]] software created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on a virtual "[[Bulletin board|corkboard]]".{{Explain|reason=Too vague|date=May 2023}}

Berners-Lee also created what is considered by [[Encyclopædia Britannica|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.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Dennis |first1=Michael Aaron |author-link1=Michael Aaron Dennis |last2=Hosch |first2=William L. |last3=Tikkanen |first3=Amy |date=2007-04-11 |title=blog |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/blog |access-date=2023-05-03 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref>

From June 14, 1993, Mosaic Communications Corporation maintained their "What's New"<ref>"[http://home.mcom.com/home/whats-new.html What's New!]". Mosaic Communications Corporation. Retrieved June 15, 2013.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://moonmilk.com/playground.html |title=Ranjit's HTTP playground |date=1998-05-19 |website=Moonmilk |access-date=2023-11-26 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/19980519210345/http://moonmilk.com/playground.html |archive-date=1998-05-19}}</ref> Other early pioneers of blogging, such as [[Justin Hall]], credit him with being an inspiration.<ref>{{cite interview |last=Rosenberg |first=Scott |subject-link= Scott Rosenberg (journalist) |interviewer=Simon Owens |title=Scott Rosenberg Traces the Blogosphere's Origins |work=Mediashift |date=23 September 2008 |publisher=PBS |quote=For instance, Justin Hall started his site in January 1994, before most of us had heard of the web. I asked him, 'Well, you're one of the first bloggers, was there anyone out there who you were getting inspiration from?' And he pointed me to this other guy named Ranjit Bhatnagar who was keeping a site at moonmilk.com in 1993. And, sure enough, it was a reverse chronological list of stuff he found on the web. |url=http://mediashift.org/2008/09/scott-rosenberg-traces-the-blogospheres-origins266/ |access-date=26 November 2023}}</ref>

The earliest instance of a commercial blog was on the first [[business to consumer]] Web site created in 1995 by [[Ty Inc|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.<ref name=BeanieBabies>{{cite book|last=Bissonnette|first=Zac|date=March 2015|title=The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute|publisher=Penguin Books|chapter=The $12-per-hour Sociology Major Who Made Ty Warner a Billionaire| pages=107–121|isbn=978-1591846024}}</ref>

The modern blog evolved from the [[online diary]] where people would keep a running account of the events in their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. [[Justin Hall]], who began personal blogging in 1994 while a student at [[Swarthmore College]], is generally recognized as one of the earlier bloggers,<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/20/MNGBKBEJO01.DTL|title=Time to get a life&nbsp;— pioneer blogger Justin Hall bows out at 31|last=Harmanci|first=Reyhan|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=February 20, 2005|access-date=June 5, 2008}}</ref> as is [[Jerry Pournelle]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jerrypournelle.com/#whatabout |title=Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor |work=jerrypournelle.com |quote= I can make some claim to this being The Original Blog and Daybook. I certainly started keeping a day book well before most, and long before the term "blog" or Web Log was invented. BIX, the Byte information exchange, preceded the Web by a lot, and I also had a daily journal on GE Genie. Both of those would have been considered blogs if there had been any such term. All that was long before the World Wide Web. |author=Pournelle, Jerry |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216092746/https://www.jerrypournelle.com/#whatabout |archive-date= Feb 16, 2024 }}</ref> [[Dave Winer]]'s Scripting News is also credited with being one of the older and longer running weblogs.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082-985714.html
|title=Newsmaker: Blogging comes to Harvard
|first=Paul
|last=Festa
|publisher=[[CNET]] News
|date=February 25, 2003
|access-date=January 25, 2007
|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090707204556/http://news.cnet.com/2008-1082-985714.html |archive-date= Jul 7, 2009 }}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|date=June 10, 2002
|first=David F.
|last=Gallagher
|title=Technology; A rift among bloggers
|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3DE103DF933A25755C0A9649C8B63
|quote=...Dave Winer... whose Scripting News (scripting.com) is one of the oldest blogs.
|url-access=subscription
|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122150419/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/10/business/technology-a-rift-among-bloggers.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm |archive-date= Jan 22, 2013
}}</ref> The Australian Netguide magazine maintained the Daily Net News<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/19961112042649/http://netguide.aust.com/daily/index.html Australian Net Guide]". netguide.aust.com (November 12, 1996). Retrieved June 15, 2013.</ref> on their web site from 1996. Daily Net News ran links and daily reviews of new websites, mostly in Australia.

Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, digital video, and digital pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and [[EyeTap]] device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as [[sousveillance]], and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters. Some early bloggers, such as The Misanthropic Bitch, who began in 1997, referred to their online presence as a [[zine]], before the term blog entered common usage.

The first research paper about blogging was [[Torill Mortensen]] and [[Jill Walker Rettberg]]'s paper "Blogging Thoughts",<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mortensen |first1=Torill |last2=Walker|first2=Jill|date=2002|title=Blogging thoughts: personal publication as an online research tool|url=https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/1956/13070/Blogging-Thoughts.pdf |via=Bergen Open Research Archive |journal=Researching ICTs in Context|pages=249–279 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220228073152/https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/1956/13070/Blogging-Thoughts.pdf|archive-date= Feb 28, 2022 }}</ref> which analysed how blogs were being used to foster research communities and the exchange of ideas and scholarship, and how this new means of networking overturns traditional power structures.

===Technology===
Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Websites. In 1995, the "Online Diary" on the [[Ty, Inc.]] Web site was produced and updated manually before any blogging programs were available. Posts were made to appear in reverse chronological order by manually updating text-based [[HTML]] code using [[FTP]] software in real time several times a day. To users, this offered the appearance of a live diary that contained multiple new entries per day. At the beginning of each new day, new diary entries were manually coded into a new HTML file, and at the start of each month, diary entries were archived into their own folder, which contained a separate HTML page for every day of the month. Then, menus that contained links to the most recent diary entry were updated manually throughout the site. This text-based method of organizing thousands of files served as a springboard to define future blogging styles that were captured by blogging software developed years later.<ref name="BeanieBabies" />

The evolution of electronic and software tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of Web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible for a much larger and less technically-inclined population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today. For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated [[blog hosting service]]s, on regular [[web hosting service]]s, or run using blog software.

===Rise in popularity===
After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools:
* [[Bruce Ableson]] launched [[Open Diary]] in October 1998, which soon grew to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog community where readers could add comments to other writers' blog entries.
* [[Brad Fitzpatrick]] started [[LiveJournal]] in March 1999.
* Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a Web site, followed by DiaryLand in September 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2003/5/blog-jensen.asp?printerfriendly=yes |title=Emerging Alternatives: A Brief History of Weblogs |first1=Mallory |last1=Jensen |date=September–October 2005 |website=Columbia Journalism Review |publisher=Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism |access-date=March 29, 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411075325/http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2003/5/blog-jensen.asp?printerfriendly=yes |archive-date=April 11, 2008 }}</ref>
* [[Blogger (service)|Blogger]] (blogspot.com) was launched in 1999<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bull |first1=Glen |last2=Bull |first2=Gina |last3=Kadjer |first3=Sara |title=Writing with Weblogs |url=https://tl-cdn.pbseducation.org/courses/tech195/docs/writing_with_weblogs.pdf |publisher=International Society for Technology in Education |access-date=December 6, 2023}}</ref>
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===Political impact===
[[File:Talkingpointsmemo2.png|thumb|On December 6, 2002, Josh Marshall's talkingpointsmemo.com blog called attention to U.S. Senator [[Trent Lott|Lott's]] comments regarding Senator Thurmond. Senator Lott was eventually to resign his Senate leadership position over the matter.]]

An early milestone in the rise in importance of blogs came in 2002, when many bloggers focused on comments by [[United States Senate Majority Leader|U.S. Senate Majority Leader]] [[Trent Lott]].<ref name="massing essay">{{cite journal | last = Massing | first = Michael | author-link = Michael Massing | title = The News About the Internet | journal = New York Review of Books | volume = 56 | issue = 13 | date = August 13, 2009 | pages = 29–32 | url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22960 | access-date = October 10, 2009 }}</ref> Senator Lott, at a party honoring [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] [[Strom Thurmond]], praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as tacit approval of [[racial segregation]], a policy advocated by Thurmond's [[1948 United States presidential election|1948 presidential campaign]]. This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. (See [[Josh Marshall]]'s ''[[Talking Points Memo]]''.) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader.

Similarly, blogs were among the driving forces behind the "[[Rathergate]]" scandal. Television journalist [[Dan Rather]] presented documents on the CBS show ''[[60 Minutes]]'' that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be [[forgery|forgeries]] and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view. Consequently, CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see: [[Little Green Footballs]]). The impact of these stories gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination.

In Russia, some political bloggers have started to challenge the dominance of official, overwhelmingly pro-government media. Bloggers such as [[Rustem Adagamov]] and [[Alexei Navalny]] have many followers, and the latter's nickname for the ruling [[United Russia]] party as the "party of crooks and thieves" has been adopted by anti-regime protesters.<ref>[[Daniel Sandford (journalist)|Daniel Sandford]], [[BBC News]]: "Russians tire of corruption spectacle", https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15972326</ref> This led to ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' calling Navalny "the man [[Vladimir Putin]] fears most" in March 2012.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Man Vladimir Putin Fears Most (the weekend interview)  |url=https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203986604577257321601811092 | first=Matthew | last=Kaminski | newspaper=The Wall Street Journal | date=March 3, 2012 }}</ref>

===Mainstream popularity===
By 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as [[political consultant]]s, news services, and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Blogging was established by politicians and political candidates to express opinions on war and other issues and cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See [[Howard Dean]] and [[Wesley Clark]].) Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the [[Labour Party (UK)|UK's Labour Party's]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) [[Tom Watson (Labour politician)|Tom Watson]], began to blog to bond with constituents. In January 2005, ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'' magazine listed eight bloggers whom business people "could not ignore": [[Engadget|Peter Rojas]], [[Xeni Jardin]], [[Benjamin Trott|Ben Trott]], [[Mena Trott]], [[Jonathan I. Schwartz|Jonathan Schwartz]], Jason Goldman, [[Robert Scoble]], and [[Jason Calacanis]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,1011763-1,00.html | title=Why There's No Escaping the Blog | work=Fortune | access-date=January 30, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050101004415/http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0%2C15114%2C1011763-1%2C00.html | archive-date=January 1, 2005 | last1=Kirkpatrick | first1=David | last2=Roth | first2=Daniel | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Israel was among the first national governments to set up an official blog.<ref name=Ynet>[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3220593,00.html Israel Video Blog aims to show the world 'the beautiful face of real Israel'], Ynet, February 24, 2008.</ref> Under [[David Saranga]], the [[Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] became active in adopting [[Web 2.0]] initiatives, including an official [[video blog]]<ref name=Ynet/> and a [[political blog]].<ref name=Ynet3>[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3220593,00.html Latest PR venture of Israel's diplomatic mission in New York attracts large Arab audience], Ynet, June 21, 2007.</ref> The Foreign Ministry also held a [[microblogging]] press conference via Twitter about its [[2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict|war with Hamas]], with Saranga answering questions from the public in common text-messaging abbreviations during a live worldwide press conference.<ref name=JP>{{cite news |url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456533492&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull |title=Battlefront Twitter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111110204933/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456533492&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull |archive-date=November 10, 2011 |author=Haviv Rettig Gur |newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |date=December 30, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The questions and answers were later posted on [[IsraelPolitik]], the country's official political blog.<ref name=NYTs>[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/weekinreview/04cohen.html The Toughest Q's Answered in the Briefest Tweets], Noam Cohen, ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 3, 2009. Retrieved January 5, 2009.</ref>

The impact of blogging on the mainstream media has also been acknowledged by governments. In 2009, the presence of the American journalism industry had declined to the point that several newspaper corporations were filing for bankruptcy, resulting in less direct competition between newspapers within the same circulation area. Discussion emerged as to whether the newspaper industry would benefit from a stimulus package by the federal government. U.S. President [[Barack Obama]] acknowledged the emerging influence of blogging upon society by saying, "if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, then what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void, but not a lot of mutual understanding".<ref>[http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091103/OPINION16/91102031/1004/OPINION/Journalists-deserve-subsidies-too Journalists deserve subsidies too] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140324134110/http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091103/OPINION16/91102031/1004/OPINION/Journalists-deserve-subsidies-too |date=March 24, 2014 }}, [[Robert W. McChesney]] and [[John Nichols (journalist)|John Nichols]], ''Delaware Online'', November 3, 2009. Retrieved November 10, 2009.</ref> Between 2009 and 2012, an [[Orwell Prize]] for blogging was awarded.

In the late [[2000s]], blogs were often used on business websites and for [[grassroots]] [[political activism]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lain Kennedy |first=Joice |title=Job Interviews for Dummies |date=2008-01-03 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley Publishing, Inc.]] |isbn=9780470177488 |edition=3rd |location=Indianapolis |pages=197 |orig-date=2007, the majority was completed by this year}}</ref>