January 1994
Swarthmore student Justin Hall creates first blog ever, Links.net.
December 1997
Online diarist Jorn Barger coins the term “Weblog” for “logging the Web.”
April 1999
Programmer Peter Merholz shortens “Weblog” to “blog.”
August 1999
Blogger rolls out the first popular, free blog-creation service.
January 2000
Boing Boing is born.
July 2000
AndrewSullivan.com launches.
February 2002
Heather Armstrong is fired for discussing her job on her blog, Dooce. “Dooced” becomes a verb: “Fired for blogging.”
August 2002
Nick Denton launches Gizmodo, the first in what will become a blog empire.Blogads launches, the first broker of blog advertising.
December 2002
Talking Points Memo highlights Trent Lott’s racially charged comments; thirteen days later, Lott resigns from his post as Senate majority leader.
December 2002
Gawker launches, igniting the gossip-blog boom.
March 2003
“Salam Pax,” an anonymous Iraqi blogger, gains worldwide audience during the Iraq war.
June 2003
Google launches AdSense, matching ads to blog content.
August 2003
The first avalanche of ads on political blogs.
September 2003
Jason Calacanis founds Weblogs, Inc., which eventually grows into a portfolio of 85 blogs.
January 2004
Denton launches Wonkette.
March 2004
Calacanis poaches Gizmodo writer Peter Rojas from Denton. Denton proclaims himself “royally shafted” on his personal blog.
December 2004
Merriam-Webster declares “blog” the “Word of the Year.”
January 2005
Study finds that 32 million Americans read blogs.
May 2005
The Huffington Post launches.
October 2005
Calacanis sells his blogs to AOL for $25 million.
December 2005
An estimated $100 million worth of blog ads are sold this year.
January 2006
Time leases Andrew Sullivan’s blog, adding it to its Website.
February 2006
The Huffington Post surges to become fourth most-linked-to blog.
The Blog Establishment
• Blogs to Riches: The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom
• Linkology: How the 50 Most Popular Blogs Are Related
• The Early Years: A Timeline of How Blogging All Began
• Five Cool Blogs to Check Out Now
• Meet the Bloggers
• The Long Tail Theory: Why B-list Blogs Can Make It, Too