Blogger.com update ready

Blogger.com is extremely popular blogging software with a bad rap. Although it's owned by Google, it's pretty backwards and missing some basic functionality (like categories and reliability!).

I use Blogger for my original blog, The Ted Rap, and previously reviewed Blogger and rated it "Almost Recommended."

It needed two things to move to recommended status:

• Reliable updates, such as when writing a new post. Often I'd write a new post but couldn't actually post it -- Blogger would time out and I'd need to try again later.
• Categories - a way to organize blog posts by subject. For example a fishing blog might have categories such as "trout" "bass" "line" "hooks" etc. A reader could click on a category, for example, "hooks" and see everything you've written on hooks.

It appears like the new Blogger satisfies these requirements, although my I'll withhold judgment for a while.

Most blogs can be updated now to the new version. It's supposedly in beta, but Google calls things beta long after they're solid, just as some other companies ship beta software claiming it's done :)

The upgrade? Went very smoothly and took maybe two minutes and just the click of a button.
Google was kind enough to send me about a dozen duplicate messages saying my update had succeeded!

Comments

[Solo Business Marketing]

This is great news about Blogger.

I use Wordpress, but Flora, a person you met at the Los Angeles bootcamp, uses Blogger's software.

I'll be sure to let her know your findings.

Meanwhile, the inability to create categories is one reason why I shied away from Blogger. Wordpress had a steep learning curve, but I'm still glad I chose that software.

Shirley

[Flora Morris Brown]

Ted, thanks for this info on Blogger. As a user of it for two of my blogs, this is welcome news.

[T Demop, Blogging for Business]

Hi Shirley and Flora,
Great meeting you at James Malinchak's Speaking Bootcamp.

Everyone loves WordPress, although as you say there is a learning curve for sure.

I have high hopes for Blogger -- I use it for one of my blogs myself and haven't switched since I've been waiting for this upgrade

[Paul Chaney]

It's really ironic when you think about it. Blogger was the first blogging software to have mass appeal (i.e., that didn't require extensive knowledge of HTML or some other cryptic programming language). You'd think that it would have stayed ahead of the curve in terms of basic functionality.

It just seems strange that the software that introduced blogging would languish so far behind. Glad to see it's finally catching up.

[T Demop, Blogging for Business]

Paul,

Couldn't agree more - not sure why they slipped so far, or at least failed to remotely keep up

[andyp]

I moved to Wordpress.com several months ago, and I'm glad that I did. Blogger has many, many deficiencies (which I blogged about at the time), and frankly the new version does little to resolve them. Meanwhile, WP.com keeps on adding fantastic new features on an almost-weekly basis.

[T Demop, Blogging for Business]

Andy,
Thanks for your comments.

WordPress.com is a fine platform, but also has a few limitations of course. You can't self-host or map (your blog's URL must be something.wordpress.com) and you have limited control over the look and feel. No platform is perfect!

Also, at least a few people find Mr. WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, to be annoying to deal with! Nothing personal here, but my interactions have been "less than pleasant."