stedavies.com - communications consultant

Kottke.org, generally regarded as the oldest blog that is still continually updated to this day turned 10 on Friday. On the 14 March, 1998 Kottke.org’s first post was conceived. 14,500 blog posts, six designs and countless other personal experiences later the blog celebrates its first decade of existence. Certainly a milestone in blogging terms and perhaps one in wider social media terms also, but what it signifies to me is how young this thing is. When I say ‘this thing’ I don’t just mean blogging but the internet in general. It really still is a baby.

Before your eyes start glazing over let me first explain that this isn’t a post to start making wild predictions about where everything is going. The reality is no one knows and I would be as equally a fool as all the others who make their pronouncements every New Year. But when the oldest functioning blog turns a mere 10 years old, chances are we’ve got a lot more to come yet regardless of what the ‘blogging is past its peak’ bellowers proclaim.

In ten years’ time do you think TechCrunch and the other technology blogs below it will be the ‘must read’ blogs? I don’t think so. Why? Well, for one thing, I don’t think web start-up news is going to be a major interest to the masses (yes I mean mass audience because there is still such a thing as far as I’m concerned). Currently it is because I believe we’re still in the early adopter phase. Blogs with a wide public appeal will be king. Time will tell ’suppose.

Happy birthday Kottke.org.