Blogger is now surprisingly cool
I have had a love hate relation with Google’s Blogger service. I started blogging with it. It just stopped working for me one day and I moved on. But since then I have had minor brushes with the updates that Google added with time and it has now become pretty darn good!
Some recent decisions by Google has completely turned around the way guys like me looked at Blogger. Now it sports no advertisements… Google’s own adsense block is history and instead we have a cool looking bar that adds Google site search to the Blog. Other than that users get to surf around other Blogger based Blogs using the toolbar itself. Bloggers get to Blog using the BlogIt button.
And well, the new templates that were added to the Blogger services are some of the coolest skins available in free Blogging services. They now look really nice. Though it still lack some basic features like categories or community tools, it is very easy for a new user to start blogging. Google has certainly made it from something not so good into something really cool. And the fact that now users can use their own personal adsense codes… it is like paying people to Blog!
Contributed by: Sushubh, Publisher of Software news at Software Journal and Tech Consultant to SEJ.
Is commenting available now? Hot damn! At last!
Originally, I started doing all my blogging through Blogger. I found it very easy to get started. However, my interests led me to using Postnuke for my Family Blog: Keim-web.com. When I started doing my own personal site (Highway 4: Where the Rubber Meets the Road”>Highway4.org) I decided to use MovableType. The flexibility of MovableType is amazing. What is surprising to me is that I think that MT does a better job of giving access to the Google API than Blogger does. Does Blogger support trackback? I haven’t looked recently but I do think that trackback and pinging are very important for a blogging tool.
excelente, adelante con todo.
I was about to switch over to typepad.com when Blogger upgraded. Now I just might stick with the freebie!
I like Blogger – it’s easy to use. But I’m having trouble adding my adsense code to my page. I have it on my other blog I use MT for. Also, Blogger is sometimes down and it’s really inconvenient when writing a new post and it just hangs when you try to publish. This never happens on Movable Type and I’m wondering what the difference could be…anyone?
Would like for Blogger to include trackback in the free version.
Cheers, J
I was dissatisfed with blogger due to its slowness and downtimes so I switched to seoblog and found it to be much faster & reliable.
Totally agree with the article ! And (not new but always good), google refreshs almost everyday blogger’s blogs, pretty nice way to get some visibility when you talk about actualities…
I have been very happy with Blogger. My only frustration is that i can not get into the search engines at all. I have done what the books say but it has no affect.
Chuck at http://analyticalview.blogspot.com/
I have seen a big improvement on the look and feel of blogger. Many things have become easier. One of the biggest frustrations I found from the “improvements” was the function that displays images in the post editing section. It used to display the code of the picture, but now it shows the actual picture. This is insanely frustrating because when you go to edit a post, what if what you want to edit is the actual picture tag? How are you supposed to do that when it doesn’t show the tags, but the picture?
One of my pre-loaded text was the image tag and all I do is fill it in with my info. It doesn’t even load in the box any more because Blogger keeps trying to call up an image that doesn’t exist. For now, I’m sticking with w.bloggar to do my posting and editing.
Amen to comments 35, 73 and 77… I heart you Google. The one thing I want from you? In-house trackback! Something for dummies… I’m too busy to learn a new thing…. For now I’m using Haloscan…
I like the way google has made it easy for everyone to use the results on the other hand are not as great as it was before i noticed it comes up better as results for yahoo then google itself so there are pluses to it. Overall blogs are here to stay i believe.
I´ve been always using Blogger and I am very happy with the new features. The only thing I have to disclaim is that sometimes the server is so busy that it becomes difficult to publish, compose o edit posts. But I like Blogger in deed. (I become the link o my other e-mail adress marsi_comad@yahoo.es bu t I have open the e-mail above for the blog isues)
I really enjoy the updated blogger! It has been great at making it easier and easier for us non-techie types :)
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