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In the beginning, before "Blogging" became popular the primary medium for communication online was Usenet. Usenet was actually created over a decade before the Internet. Usenet featured moderated newsgroups where users could post messages. These messages were then controlled by a server, small group, or an individual. This was considered to pave the way for internet forums and blogging.
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SlashDot, a still-popular blog for tech "nerds" launched.
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Open Diary Launched. Growing to thousands of online diaries. Innovating the reader comment, and becoming the first blog community where readers could add comments to other writers' blogs.
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On his blog Peterme.com, Peter Merholz, jokingly broke up the word weblog in the phrase we blog. Thus coining the phrase "blog".
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Brad Fitzpatrick, a well known blogger created LiveJournal.
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In July 1999, Andrew Smales created Pitas.com, a very simple alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a website. Pitas made blogging very simple, and because of that, blogging exploded.
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Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, originally from Pyra Labs, launch blogger.com.
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Shortly after the creation of Pitas.com, Andrew Smales would go on to create DiaryLand in September of 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.
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Adam Kontras posts a video alongside a blog entry to inform friends and family of his move to Los Angeles in pursuit of Show Business, thus becoming the very first video log.
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By 2001, blogging became such a phenomenon that how-to manuals began to pop-up, primarily focusing on technique. Journalism schools began researching blogging and noting the difference between it and journalism.
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In 2002, many blogs focused on comments made by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Sen. Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off if Thurmond had been elected president. Blogs have gained notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news.
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Blogger.com is bought by Google.
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In 2004, Steve Garfield launched his own video blog and declared that year "the year of the video blog". Steve Garfield would help to pioneer Vlogging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc4MTRmcwfk
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In 2004, Global Voices Online surfaced. A website that shines light on the bloggers around the world who often report on stories that other media does not. Today, the site has a relationship with Reuters, and works to find the most compelling stories that come from "misrepresented communities."
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The Guardian Newspaper in the United Kingdom launched a redesign in September 2005.
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BBC News launches a weblog for its editors, following other news companies.
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In 2007, Tim O'Reilly proposed a Blogger's Code of Conduct.
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In 2011, Tom Knighton, owner of Knighton Media, Inc, announced that his company would be purchasing The Albany Journal. This was the first known instance of a blog purchasing a newspaper.
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Today more and more people are converting from a written out blog form, to the vlog. Predictions have been made that as time goes on vloggers will start to convert to a live vlog instead of recorded. This is just one of the few trends that are being predicted. Comment threads are one of the things that bloggers are getting rid of, and they are converting to a purely social media feedback system. Another trend is the customized graphics. Customized graphics are becoming more and more popular.
