The Blogger

Evan Williams

Williams made his first mark in 1999 by creating Blogger, a tool that empowered millions of people to publish Web journals, giving them virtual soapboxes to reveal to the world, finally, what they thought. After selling Blogger to Google for an undisclosed amount, Williams blazed yet another blogging trail by helping develop and commercialize a concept created by Jack Dorsey and Noah Glass. Twitter popularized the idea of microblogging: using cell phones, instant messages, and e-mail to post streams of tiny blog posts, often random thoughts or mundane updates on what's for lunch or doing laundry. Silly as it sounds, Twitter has made Web publishing accessible to the millions with neither the time or desire to write full-blown blogs, but still want to share their lives, right down to the last trivial detail.