Ashampoo Blog 10 year anniversary: What changed, what remains

When the colleagues from our web department asked me if I was going to write an anniversary blog, I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. Ten minutes later, I was wiser and realized: 10 years, 235 blog posts, and 7 million views–not bad! Sounds like a good reason to look back at old tech, surprising developments, and topics that never seem to get old.

Back in our first discussions in 2015, we quickly agreed on what we didn’t want: Back then, corporate blogs mostly followed the same tired formula, i.e., the author would embark on some sort of (strictly personal!) experience, run into an annoying problem, and, surprise, the miraculous solution just happened to be a product sold by their company, conveniently highlighted in part two of the post. I found that as boring as it was predictable and asked Rolf Hilcher, Ashampoo’s CEO at the time, if we could try a blog without ads. Our brilliant marketing strategist gave me the green light–probably the main reason this blog still exists today. I get to write it when I have time and about whatever I want–a rare luxury in this industry!

Some topics have become evergreens, like the outrageous prices for printer ink or the endless flood of malware targeting our devices. On the other hand, I probably don’t need to explain what Amazon Prime, PayPal, or Spotify are anymore. Windows, of course, will likely keep trying to push the Microsoft browser like spoiled milk onto users–and continue failing. Data giants who try to track our every move have always played a big role and sadly continue to do so. Other topics keep popping up in new variations: Outraged readers once refused to switch to the then new Windows 10. Today, millions around the world can’t upgrade to Windows 11–even if they wanted to!

Other things took me by surprise with how big they got. In 2016, after some hesitation, I gave a Chinese smartphone from the, at the time, rather unknown brand Xiaomi a shot and was quite impressed by its price-performance ratio. Today, Xiaomi is one of the top three smartphone manufacturers and no longer has its interface translated by fans. I also didn’t expect streaming to become so widespread: These days, DVD buyers are rare birds, and large collections keep turning up at flea markets and on eBay. In 2017, I thought influencers were just a passing cultural footnote. Today, it’s a full-blown industry, and many teens now dream of it as a career path. I never wrote an article on the, back then, budding TikTok as the platform just seemed too silly to me. Today, it has 1.5 billion users and my opinion remains the same.

Some blog posts leave me feeling almost nostalgic. I still remember my sentimental goodbyes to Windows Phone (never forgotten!), video rental stores, and Windows 7. I don’t miss Internet Explorer, Windows 8, or even Google+ one bit. Burning discs was still totally relevant when I started this blog–now most PCs don’t even have an optical drive anymore. Who still remembers the magic of a lovingly curated, self-made CD compilation? Back in 2017, smartphones with really decent cameras started hitting the market. I still considered myself a loyal fan of digital cameras back then. Today, I’d rather not carry around five pounds of gear on vacation. Still, I occasionally pick up my old Canon and feel a touch of nostalgia. We had some good times together.

Constant focus: Fascination technology

I always enjoyed explaining things–which is probably why the "2-Minute Tech" blog posts were some of my favorites. Breaking down terms like BIOS, Windows Registry, or two-factor authentication in a short, snappy, understandable way was fun. For one article about cellphone radiation, I spent a rainy weekend buried in research. I knew tech-savvy readers hung out in the comments, and I didn’t want to embarrass myself! Speaking of comments: we've gotten roughly 14,000 over the years– thank you for that! These blog posts would be nothing without the knowledge, experience, and emotion you’ve shared underneath them time and again.

As I dug through those old texts, a lot of memories came back–places, people, and everything I’ve learned while writing. As a generalist, you have to dig into every topic from scratch–I can’t just feed you nonsense. A lot has changed, but my fascination with technology and how it works hasn’t gone anywhere. I’ve had a lot of fun over the past ten years–hopefully, you did too! Here’s to the next 235 articles. I’ll be back–and still without TikTok!

PS: You may have noticed that the blog has had a facelift. That’s thanks to the aforementioned web team, the same folks who talked me into writing this anniversary post in the first place. Big shoutout to them!