The Blogging Age

In 1993, the 'information superhighway' or the Internet, came into existence. Similarly so did the blogging phenomenon. The first political blog was published by Dr Glen Barry on a campaign for forest protection. Personal blogging on the other hand did not take off until the next year. One of the earliest blogger to began personal blogging was Justin Hall, who was then a student at Swarthmore College. From then on there was a slow but gradual rise on blog usage and in 1999 there was a rapid spread on its popularity. It became popular to not only among working adults but as well as teenagers.


"Blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream". Indeed that is true. With data retrieved from technorati.com, the numbers are staggeringly surprising.

And this figures represents the blogging community worldwide! If you think that is fascinating, nearly three quarters of that figure are male bloggers from Asian and European countries.

What good is a blog one might ask?

Of course blogging bring about benefits to the community. First of all, people blog for profit! Advertisers will usually want to advertise brands and products on blogging spaces as it has higher potential of loyal audiences. Bloggers on the other hand make a lot of profit from advertisers.

Secondly, people blog to be heard. With the many restrains of mainstream media (especially in Malaysia), audiences have turned to alternative media. Alternative media in this case are online news portals and blogs. Prominent bloggers such as Raja Petra Kamaruddin voice his opinions on the politics of Malaysia through his blog as mainstream media do not permit him to do so.

References:

Technorati: State of blogosphere 2007, 2008
www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere

Wikipedia: Origins of a Blog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogging#Origins