Dude, what’s your blogspot?

I’ve actually heard people refer to their blogs as their “blogspots”. Using whatever.blogspot.com was very smart of Blogger. It is, indeed, the “spot” where your blog resides… your “blogspot”.

The Power of Gooooogle

Since Google acquired Blogger, things have only gotten rosier over there. I use Google’s products a lot, and whether I’m checking my gmail, using their image search, or obsessing over my stats in Analytics, I keep on running into invitations to Blogger. Ah, to be owned by Google.

It’s Called Blogger

This might be the best thing about it. If you want to blog, and be a blogger… go to Blogger. It’s self-explanatory. I’ve had to explain to clients what WordPress and Movable Type are, but never Blogger.

Keeping it Simple is Not So Stupid

In fact, it’s brilliant. Blogger is simple to set up, and simple to use. You can be up and running as a bonafide “member of the blogosphere” in less than 10 minutes. And in an already overcrowded blogosphere, that’s a good thing. It’s because of this simplicity, this ease of use, that so many of us got started blogging on Blogger- and why so many are still using it.

You’ll see the results after voting- and, while I wasn’t too surprised to see WordPress (.org – referring to the script you self-host) leading the pack, I was a little surprised at how far behind all the others were. The poll is still ongoing, so there will no doubt be changes to the results, but as I write this:

WordPress.org is at 113.
Movable Type is at 9.
Blogger is at 40.
Wordpress.com is at 45.
TypePad is at 16.
LiveJournal is at 3.

As someone who’s used all of the above platforms at one time or another, I honestly expected more from the non-Wordpress platforms. Movable Type, which I only recently stopped using, is excellent and imho much better than Blogger.

Then again, I did stop using Movable Type recently. Why? Because WordPress is easier to use. Installation is a breeze. Widgets have made adding and removing things from your sidebar ridiculously simple. And if I ever run into any problems, there’s a very good chance that someone has experienced and solved the same thing. At the end of the day, it’s about what gives me more productivity as a blogger.