The evolution of blogs, put simply

Shane Richmond over at the Telegraph has done a nice job explaining simply what blogs are and how they’ve evolved.

The tool: Blog software was designed to make it easy for individuals to create websites without needing much programming skill, design ability or technical support.
The practice: The nature of the tool appealed to people who were passionate about a particular topic. They could, as the stereotype has it, become pajama publishers. As the concept has worked its way up to bigger publishers, the idea of passion and niche publishing has remained.

The tool: A blog front page shows the most recent posts in reverse chronological order, mostly because it’s a very easy way to present the information and requires no design skill. The tool doesn’t get in the way of the content.
The practice: The presentation encourages blogs to have a continuity of thought. The most recent posts are there and people can read back to see how the author’s train of thought has developed.

The tool: Blog posts come with comments on the bottom. Once blogs began to carry ideas and opinions instead of just links, some bright spark – probably Bruce Ableson of Open Diary had the idea of adding comments.
The practice: Once you’ve got comments, you’ve got a conversation and the seeds of a community. Remember, this is single-person or small group publishing. When people are talking to you and you have no big organisation behind which to hide, it’s rude not to reply. And so the barriers between author and reader began to come down.

Read the rest here.