Blogger

Blogger was started by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra Labs in August of 1999. This was in the midst of the dot-com boom. But we weren't exactly a VC-funded, party-throwing, foosball-in-the-lobby-playing, free-beer-drinking outfit. (Unless it was other people's free beer.) We were three friends, funded by doing annoying contract web projects for big companies, trying to make our own grand entrance onto the Internet landscape. What we were originally trying to do doesn't matter so much now. But while doing it, we created Blogger, more or less on a whim, and thought — Hmmm... that's kinda interesting.

Blogger took off, in a small way, and eventually a bigger way, over a couple years. We raised a little money (but stayed small). And then the bust happened, and we ran out of money, and our fun little journey got less fun. We narrowly survived, not all in one piece, but kept the service going the whole time (most days) and started building it back up.

Things were going well again in 2002. We had hundreds of thousands of users, though still just a few people. And then something no one expected happened: Google wanted to [|buy us]. Yes, that Google. We liked Google a lot. And they liked blogs. So we were amenable to the idea. And it worked out nicely.

What's a blog? A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules. In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not. Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.

//The number of blogs by school counselors, veteran and novice, has skyrocketed! School counselor blogs tend to address one of two audiences; the school community OR other school counselors. When creating and maintaining your blog maintain a focus on one of these audiences. School counselor blogs for the school community look more like a webpage that includes contact info, events, programming, etc. School counselor blogs for other school counselors read more like a personal journal that shares inspirations, ideas and professional goals. Check out the SCOPE Blogroll to see all the blogs we know of so far and watch the list grow! //

//Need help getting started? Read this article on How to Write the Perfect Blog Post shared by Susan Spellman Cann, a School Counsellor colleague in Canada. Or check out this EXTREMELY popular school counselor blog by Danielle Schultz in Pennsylvannia! //