In a few short months it’s going to be 2009, and a ton of stuff has changed in the world of computing over the past almost-ten years. Some of the modern advancements have proven to be a notable improvement while others still produce the same crapola they did nearly ten years ago.

In this installment we’ll be taking a look at blogging. The history of blogs has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, authored by those of every age, race, creed, color, nationality, religion and whatever else you want to throw in the list. All emotions pour out in blogs and they are – said very simply – the best reading there is on the internet.

Where did “blog” come from?

Blog comes from weblog which is a shortened web log. This word originated to define a written series of web events, journal style. For example, some of the early web logs were simply internet technical journals outlining the progress on projects. These journals had more of a a personal touch and were easy-to-read compared to a manual (which was the whole point). In addition they could be updated at whim, and people genuinely appreciated this.

Web log turned into weblog and then simply blog for whatever reason. It is unknown when this happened or even why it did, but the word stuck like glue once it became blog.

Blog used to be only a noun, meaning “the journal itself”. But now it is also used as a verb where it literally means “to write on my online weblog”. So if you said “I’m going to blog that”, people know exactly what you mean.

Let’s take a look at how blogs have changed over the years.