Google makes good on their promise
Earlier this month, Google announced they would be giving Blogger, their blogging platform that had seemingly fallen to the wayside as they focused on sexier technologies like satellite imaging and augmented reality apps.
Now, Google is aiming to change the very way people consume blogs by giving all of readers of Blogger sites options on how to see the blog by adding “view” at the end of a blogger’s URL. For example, https://intoabbasarms.blogspot.com is the standard view of the blog of the Kenyan orphanage we work with (my grandmother lives there full time), but if you go to https://intoabbasarms.blogspot.com/view, you’ll see on the top right a variety of ways to view the blog… go play with it, then come back, we’ll wait…
Blogger is finally cool!
Although we still recommend owning and hosting your own URL, if you are a beginner, Blogger is a good place to start (it can be migrated to WordPress later in a matter of minutes). I haven’t liked Blogger or had a blog there in years, but it is actually kind of tempting now- maybe my personal blog should go to Blogger from Posterous? Hmm.
Blogger has critics and advocates, and there’s not a lot of gray area in between, but we have a feeling that if it has blog purists like us a little excited, that gap just might be bridged. What do you think of the new Blogger?
Lani is the COO and News Director at The American Genius, has co-authored a book, co-founded BASHH, Austin Digital Jobs, Remote Digital Jobs, and is a seasoned business writer and editorialist with a penchant for the irreverent.
Artur
April 1, 2011 at 9:56 am
That looks like it’s going to be fun and good for an image heavy real estate industry.
MH for Movoto
April 1, 2011 at 2:51 pm
I’ve always been loyal to blogger for my personal stuff…. but it IS a bit clunky…. i’m very please to see there’s going to be a makeover!
Randy Pereira
April 1, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Nice changes they are making… I can see really good use of the snapshot style view fro real estate purposes.
Definitely something to consider.
Thanks.
Judy Graff
April 1, 2011 at 8:26 pm
I’ve promoted my “blogspot.com” blog so heavily that I’m afraid to migrate it anywhere else. So this is great for me!
Lani Rosales
April 2, 2011 at 1:02 am
Judy, I just played around with yours, it looks awesome!
Andrew Mooers
April 2, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Blogger was always easy but elementary easy. Which is good for a slew of bloggers. But as you post more, become more skilled, it seemed like a junior college to have to wave good by to and put more effort in to electron production on other platforms. Hope they tweak it as will start tending that blogging garden more heavily if they do. Nothing stays the same.
Cliff Stevenson
April 3, 2011 at 10:54 am
Never paid much attention to Blogger….this looks pretty slick. Might need to take a second look.
Lani Rosales
April 3, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Cliff, if you already own your own site, it’s probably not good to go backwards, but may be good for a side blog like a neighborhood blog or something similar?
ralph evansm
April 3, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Thanks for providing us this news on Google Blogger.
A makover for this blogging platform would be great!
Missy Caulk
April 4, 2011 at 8:38 am
My first blog was on blogger. This looks pretty slick,it might be good for new listings with lots of photos.
Lani Rosales
April 4, 2011 at 2:41 pm
The only problem is that someone has to *know* about the alternative views, Google hasn’t made it obvious yet, I suppose it’s still in Beta.
Teresa Boardman
April 5, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Most people don’t get this but you can use blogger, WordPress.com, Typepad.com, tumbler, postersus and probably others and run them off of your own domain name. When it is done directly your domain name is all that shows and if the site is moved to a self hosted service the blogger doesn’t miss a beat or lose any traffic or links. There are really onl two reasons for self hosting. 1. Because the free services are lacking something that the business blogger needs or wants or 2. The blogger doesn’t know any better and thinks they need to self host to use their own domain name. Maybe there is a third reason. . . 3. The enjoyment of playing with sites.
Lani Rosales
April 5, 2011 at 5:02 pm
T, you’re totally right! But I would add a fourth and fifth to your bag of arrows (quivers? do they call them quivers? lol):
4. The blogger wants control over their content and not to be subjected to arbitrary terms of service that they may unknowingly violate and as a result have their entire site removed from the web. This has happened before (https://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/01/03/googles-evil-policy-on-shutting-down-blogs/), most notably with Blogger and there’s no way to call Google for restoration and you may be screwed when you don’t have media connection to raise a stink.
5. When you sign up for a self hosted site, it may be free, but even after hundreds of blog posts, some or all features may not remain free despite any grandfather clause promised. ActiveRain is a great example. If you’re self hosted, that’s not a worry.
For those that aren’t as technologically savvy as you, they should know that self hosting is to owning a home as third party hosting is to renting a home- there are a lot more restrictions and you don’t own your site. Domain ownership and self hosting are separate entities altogether and two totally different business decisions to make. And last but not least, a lot of third party hosting scenarios offer free domain purchase through the service leading bloggers to think they own their domain, but a good ol’ look at registration info reveals the platform owns it (but that’s obviously not in all cases, just some tricky cases).
I love Posterous, I have a personal blog there… can you imagine if they started charging tomorrow? I have hundreds of entries there! That would suck!
Thanks for stopping by, T- always love chatting about geek stuff!