So today is the day my blog in all its varied forms turns TEN!

I’ve witnessed first hand the massive impact the simple art of publishing one’s thoughts online has had on the world over the last decade, and it’s been amazing – no one could have foreseen how far it would take off. Hell, when I first signed up for Twitter four years ago I thought it would be another web 2.0 flop. Blogging encompasses so much now. It’s endless entertainment, it’s unpredictable, it’s dangerous, it’s an agent for revolution and reform, it’s a thriving hive of rapid information exchange, it’s eclectic and colourful in all its interests.

My roots were in Blogger, long before it got swallowed up by Google, and I’ve used all sorts of platforms since then: Grey Matter (old school, much!), b2evolution, Pitas, DeadJournal, InsaneJournal, LiveJournal and Movable Type, to name a few, and of course, there is WordPress, my one true love.

I took a break from public blogging in 2004, and it wasn’t until I started freelancing in 2007 that I returned. These days I can barely keep up with the pace and variety of blogs out there. The quality of amateur journalism now is unparalleled. I think when I first started there were only several hundred active bloggers in Australia. Today there is at least a good 6000 of them. And let’s not get into the statistics of users of micro-blogging platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. I can’t imagine what the state of blogging and micro-blogging will be in another decade’s time.

In other related news, you may have noticed I’ve refurbished my blog layout to be more accommodating for my various reviews, which I am finally going to make a consistent feature—so help me, the powers that be! See how Batman is impressed with me?

To celebrate ten years of blogging, I will have a pretty cool give-away this week. I’m still finalising a few things. So watch this space!