Webry Blog

» see webryblog.biglobe.ne.jp as it lived, on the wayback machine

~ the last words ~

Webry Blog (ウェブリブログ) was the blog service of BIGLOBE, the internet provider that NEC grew out of its PC-VAN dial-up network. It opened on Monday 22 March 2004, a few months after Nifty's Cocolog and a few months before Ameba Blog. BIGLOBE explained the name as "Every" joined to "Web". Blogs lived under the at.webry.info domain.

At launch the terms followed the ISP bill. BIGLOBE connection customers got 100 MB free. Anyone else could sign up with a free BIGLOBE ID for 1 MB. Extra space cost 500 yen a month per 50 MB. ASCII's launch report lists a photo album with seven slideshow modes that took uploads from a mobile phone, and a "theme radar" that searched posts by topic. NEC said the system ran on its own technology.

It was a domestic product down to the paperwork. A form on the site ordered a free printed booklet, the first-time guide to Webry Blog, which BIGLOBE mailed to your address in Japan. I have never held a BIGLOBE ID and from Turkey there was no reason to get one.

The people who did write there included the novelist Mariko Hayashi and the tennis player Ai Sugiyama. The Chunichi Dragons kept the official blog of their mascot, Doala, on it.

~ the record ~

~ six feelings ~

On 18 December 2008 Webry Blog added "blog kimochi-dama", which comes out in English as feeling balls. A reader clicked one of six and left without typing a word: I see, surprised, funny, nice, guts, cute. Each post showed its total and listed the feelings in order of count.

Facebook's Like button arrived on 9 February 2009, about seven weeks later. Facebook's wider set of reactions came in February 2016. Counting Like, there were six.

~ under kddi ~

NEC sold BIGLOBE to an investment fund in 2014, and KDDI bought the company in January 2017 for 80 billion yen. The blog service carried on through both sales. Japanese Wikipedia's summary of the late years is short: the number of users was slowly falling and system failures had become frequent.

~ two closing days ~

BIGLOBE announced the end on 18 January 2022 and stopped accepting new blogs the same day. That date also became a sorting line. A blog with no new post after 18 January 2022 went unreadable around noon on 1 December 2022. A blog that had posted since then stayed up until about 1 pm on Tuesday 31 January 2023.

An export function had always been there, and a dedicated mover to Seesaa Blog was promised for April 2022. Anyone who moved could apply for a redirect from the old address, which BIGLOBE kept running for one more year, until 31 January 2024. The old front page now thanks users for "nearly 19 years" since March 2004 and forwards to a BIGLOBE promotions page after ten seconds.

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