The Official Google Blog

Huh. Google’s first post isn’t so stellar. Who’d'a thunk it?

Their first-first post is about a proposal to change how some internet software works. It’s a great first concept, but nothing was done to establish it in the blogosphere. Their real first post, written almost a month later, completely ignores the aforementioned one, and apologizes for Google’s late start to blogging.

I’m not a fan of either.

“A good way to get rid of bad software?” (unofficial first)

“Is this thing on?” (official first)

Perez Hilton

Love him or hate him, you’ve got to admit that Perez carries more clout in Celebrity-Land than an ex-lover does with your life, even if they have pictures of you in compromising situations.

Too bad his old PageSixSixSix.com posts have been swallowed up by the New York Post. Be satisfied with his December 11 post from PerezHilton.com… Seriously, I had to dig through over 1300 pages for this one.

To be honest, I didn’t even want to read the whole post. Who leaves the “highlights” of an admittedly boring article as their site’s first footprint, even if the actress involved just won an Oscar?

“The Most Boring Woman In Hollywood”

Springwise

A little later than the usual posting time, but…

Springwise, everybody’s favourite creative-business-idea blog, opened its doors in 2002. The formatting is exactly the same as today’s, so they must have had the smarts to use CSS (was CSS mainstream back then?), have revamped every post in the nearly 6-year history, or have had a great, simple design since the very beginning.

The content is also Springwise-standard (at worst): a concise, well-written brief about an up-and-coming trend for savvy entrepreneurs and Biz Dev employees to jump on. And jump on it they did, since the little dangly straps were seen on many a cell-phone across the world — until the iPhone started showing off its screws.

“Keitai!!”

Presentation Zen

You know Garr Reynolds from his well-loved book, Presentation Zen. What you may not know is that he’s been preaching what he preaches for more than 3 years now.

On January 18, 2005, Garr wrote his first Presentation Zen post. With a quick mention of the type of content he’ll be writing here, some personal notes (and authority-establishment) there, and an outlining of the need for his blog, Garr has done less than no wrong — almost every one of my questions as to whether or not I should read PZ have been answered.

“Presentation Zen: Beginnings”

Lifehacker

For a blog that’s supposed to make life simple, Lifehacker’s early archives are terribly complex.

After glancing over six legal-ese posts, I finally found the first hack they highlighted: using Yahoo’s Calendar as an à la carte reminder service. Incredibly useful for the techies that would be reading a blog like this back in January 2005; they probably change devices every other week.

As a long-time reader of Lifehacker, I’m surprised at how similar this post is to their newer material: it’s got the brevity, quality, and simplicity of a lot of what they highlight every day. Definitely a great, no-BS start. Even with a lot of points docked for the shoddy archiving, this still ranks among The Good.

“Event reminders with Yahoo! Calendar”

And, if you’re the type that wants something personal, Gina (the editor-in-chief) wrote a quick little introduction post 10 days later.

The Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington’s incredibly influential and well-known blog/news network debuted back in 2005. And, keeping with the Tuesday tradition (I’m seriously not planning these out, they just happen), there’s two things to show: the first blog posting, and the first news item.

The honour of first blog post goes to Michael Smerconish in his piece from May 9, 2005, titled “Postcard From Philadelphia.” It’s a short post that brings to light the self-serving biases of the American TV media, and its quality is at least as good (I’m tempted to say better) than his more recent posts.

The first news item was published two days before launch, on May 7, and is about a scientology information tent set up on the set of a Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg film (presumably, but not explicitly, War of the Worlds). Short and to the point.

These are definitely The Good… but what else would you expect when someone calls in favours from professional writer-friends?

“Postcard from Philadelphia” (blog)

“Cruise, Spielberg Defend On-Set Scientology ‘Information Tent’” (news)