Duncan Riley at The Blog Herald has put up a chapter of a book he is writing that chronicles the beginning of weblogs - or blogs as they have come to be known.

The first use of the word came from a conference in Australia in 1995.

The use of the words weblog and blog gained popularity in 1997 and the first attempt at listing blogs in 1999 indicated 23 were online.

As Dave Winer and Pyra labs introduced useable software, the rest, they say is history.