Gawker, the first gossip blog, was founded in December 2002. After a legal dispute, it ceased operations in August 2016 and was relaunched in July 2021.
In February 2003, The Guardian used live blogging during Prime Minister's Question Time. They called this "live text" and began using it frequently for sporting events.
Today, there are many forms of live blogging, from self-hosted live blogs on CNN and other blogs to real-time tweets, which are essentially a form of live blogging.
If you want to get started with live blogging on your hit post own website, check out our step-by-step guide to live blogging in WordPress .
February 2003: Blogger is bought by Google
In February 2003, Google acquired Blogger, which was then the largest and most successful blogging platform. It continued to grow in popularity until mid-2010.
Since then, however, WordPress' popularity has steadily increased, and since 2014 it has overtaken Blogger and dominated the blogosphere.
Blogger remains the second most popular platform, used by about 0.4% of blogs, while WordPress is used by an astonishing 97%.
In 2003, political blogs were on the rise, and even traditional media outlets encouraged their editors to blog about current events.