Yesterday, 20 April, was the 4th anniversary of Read/WriteWeb's first official post
(although I first tinkered with blogging in March 2002). It's amazing how much has
happened in the last 4 years. A common question I get when I meet industry people is: how
did you start R/WW? The short version is I started writing Read/WriteWeb in the evenings
4 years ago, simply because I was passionate about Web technology and wanted to explore
the read/write web, a.k.a. the two-way web - Dave
Winer's term that pre-dated the term 'web 2.0'. For a long time the blog stayed a
part-time hobby, albeit one that consumed my life more and more. It was only really when
the web 2.0 trend started to take off in mid 2005 that Read/WriteWeb got popular too.
Then of course in 2006 the blog took over my life completely, as web 2.0 ramped up. Read/WriteWeb is now a media property and it's my full-time job to edit and manage the site. It is also no longer a 1-person blog, but has many talented people writing for it. Of course I'm continuing to grow the site, and there are some big plans in store for the rest of 2007.
If you're interested in more detail on how R/WW was born, check out this post I wrote on the 1-year anniversary. Here is a quick pictorial reminder of the old days:

Pre-R/WW, this was my first ever blog post in March 2002

R/WW circa August 2003

The 'pencils' design, circa January 2005
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Well then, Happy 4th, R/WW! Here's to more well-written articles to come!
What's your tradition? The whole R/WW team go bungee jumping in NZ? :)
Congratulations Richard, just goes to show how hard work and persistence can pay off! :)
Congratulations R/WW on your fourth birthday. May you have many more. :D
Congratulations on four years!
Richard congrats on Read/Write Web turning 4! It was fun hanging out this past week in SF. Keep up the great work. ;)
Congratulations! I have enjoyed your blog for a long time now, I wish you and R/WW the best.
You are an inspiration to a lot of bloggers. Cheers.
Four years, holy moly, now that is dedication.
Congrats, by far the best blog focusing on web technology.
Many happy returns of the day... :)
Congratulations! Such a great milestone!
Felicidades y por muchos años mas
4 years, that's a nice milestone. Congratulations, and I hope to read R/WW for many more years to come!
Congrats -- I hope the living you are making with running RWW is the thing you ever wanted to do.
Congrats RWW. I like you guys frank opinion and in-depth review.
Congrats dude! Looking forward to another year of great content on RWW.
Congratulations, Richard.
Readwriteweb is slowly morphing into a nice technology magazine.
Keep up the good work.
Congratulations Richard. Can't wait to see what's in store for 2007!
Congratulations, Richard.
it's so interesting to look at your old footprint.
and 4 years is such a long journey :-)
Keep on your good work!
Congrats Richard