I believe Fred Wilson nails it in this post..
That was Blogging 1.0. We knew back then that the web was a great platform for personal expression. All three businesses still exist. Two of them exist inside of web portals and About.com apparently is going to get sold soon, apparently to the New York Times Company.
Blogging 1.0 paved the way for Blogging 2.0. I see four fundamental improvements that differentiate Blogging 1.0 from Blogging 2.0.
The first is the notion of the post as the central piece of content. About.com had some of this in its DNA, but Geocities and Tripod did not. Posts drive freshness, frequency, and syndication and make Blogging 2.0 much more exciting than Bloggin 1.0 was.
The second is related to the first. Permalinks have changed the game fundamentally. Linking to content was not really possible until permalinks came along. Now each piece of content is a persistent object that has a unique identifier. This is a huge deal and this concept did not exist in Blogging 1.0.
The third is RSS. Blogging 1.0 was a web experience. Blogging 2.0 is a everywhere experience. Content was a solid in Blogging 1.0 and its a fluid in Blogging 2.0.
The fourth is CPC and contextual ad networks. In Blogging 1.0, the only way to monetize the business was with banners. And brand advertisers were not thrilled with paying high CPMs to advertise on "amateur content". With the arrival of CPC and contextual ad networks, this is no longer the case. Wherever advertisers can get clicks, they’ll place their ads. The result is a huge increase in the potential revenues.