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History and Definition of the Blog

In order to understand the inherent structure and history of the blog, it is useful to remember what the very early World Wide Web looked like, or more specifically what one of the early web sites looked like.

Before things got fancy, a web page was very much like what you might expect to see described in an introductory HTML book. There would be the central page (the "homepage") usually located at /index.html. If you had very little information to publish, there would be just one page. As content built up, you would begin to spin off separate web pages. Maybe you'd have one with contact information, another with useful references, etc. As the site grew, entire sections would be put in their own directories. The linking structure would resemble a large spider web with the home page in the center, section headers spun from there, smaller periphery pages on the outside fringe.

This is a very useful design. Our brains can understand it and follow it easily. It provides a natural navigation through a library of information.

The News Page

One difficulty in hosting web sites is getting people to return. If you publish some material and leave it unsupervised, no effort towards maintenance, your web site will usually fall into obscurity. People hunting for specific bits of information (like a recipe or some catalogued data) will occasionally visit your site, lead there by search engines, but you're really looking at a gradual web-death. A common solution to this problem (getting people to frequently return to a site) was to create a "news" page where the web designer would frequently add notices regarding which parts of the site were new or updated. If the site supported a software package, news of recent changes and improvements would be listed here.

I am going to claim that this could be considered the beginning of the "web log". Experts might disagree with me, but the important point is that this demonstrates an early model: a page that is frequently updated with "news" of some sort that is destined to be ever-changing. Whereas the rest of a web site could be compared to a book—maybe one with constant editing and a gradual evolution toward a hypothetical completed product. A web log is more like a magazine or other periodical that will never be fixed in time.

The Introduction of News Sites

In the mid- to late-nineties we began to see entire sites dedicated to bringing an audience to new sites and content. There were some sites that would publish the "Site of the Day" dedicated to pointing its audience to nifty new things that were taking place on the web. Visitors were enticed to check out the site daily. As web sites began to compete for a limited audience, this was certainly a winning model!

One of the most famous of these sites is Slashed. Founded in 1997, today's Slashdot epitomizes the modern web log. Many of its audience check for new interesting tidbits every couple hours. Slashdot employs all of the three basic features of a web log.

Three Basic Components to a Weblog

I am going to define here three basic components to a weblog. Again, some pundits may argue with my breakdown. It is in no way official, but I think this definition is defendable.

1. Important or Interesting Links to Other Sites.
2. Editor Commentary.
3. Community Feedback.

Slashdot demonstrates this structure quite well. Each entry is about some worldly event and comes with one or more links where the audience can read about the various news items. Each entry also has a general description of the topic and the Slashdot editors are never afraid to add their own spin to the description. Each entry also has an active reader discussion where everyone has the opportunity to add an opinion. It is truly awesome how a newly posted article can accumulate over 100 feedback entries in only a couple of minutes!

One thing is important to point out in my weblog definition. Weblogs do not require all three components. In fact, you can post a personal diary/journal on your website where you talk about any topic you desire; you can opt to never provide a single link to any outside web pages; and you can decide not to allow any feedback to your entries. I would still call such a site a weblog, although some might call it a web journal.

Personal Weblogs

Although Slashdot may be a great example of a weblog, many people associate "blogs" with personal journals. They are the means by which writers can express themselves to a wide audience. For me, the first real encounter with modern blogging was the Wil Wheaton's (now) famous WilWheaton.net (sometimes abbreviated WWDN).

For those of you not aware, Wil Wheaton was a former child-actor noted for his roles in Stand by Me and as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: the Next Generation. Wheaton was grappling with his acting career as an adult, trying to shake the association with the character Wesley Crusher that hung with him as his personal albatross. He decided to create a web site where he chronicled his life as "Wil Wheaton the Actor" as opposed to "Wesley Crusher of Star Trek". The site became a wild success as a wide group of people learned to identify with the real Wil Wheaton and began to follow his life. Now in addition to the frequent Science Fiction Convention, Wil Wheaton also attends events where he speaks on the topic of blogging.

There are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there today. Everyone with a voice has an opportunity to express it. Regardless of what the experts may say, I would declare the year of 2003 to be the Year of the Blog.

Next section: The Blog structure vs traditional web design

Written material copyright © 2003 by Murray Todd Williams

Page last modified 11/01/2003 22:03