It occured to me when writing on last week's task of setting up a blog, that the many different blogging services must be in fierce competition, but as far as I am aware there is no monopoly, and no clear winner even in the same way that Facebook edged out Myspace in the social networking world. I remember when I was a young teenager having a Windows Live Space because it was attatched to my MSN account, and then setting up various Livejournal accounts to blog my various teenage musings. But neither of these platforms seem to be about much these days. These websites review and rate the top blogging sites against each other:
http://blog-services-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050714gardner/
It seems that from what i have experienced anyway, is that there has been a shift from Blogger, to Wordpress over the years. I believe Wordpress does allow you to do a lot more with the blog in terms of presentation, graphics and connectivity but it is a lot harder to use than blogger.
ReplyDeleteWith blogs you don't need to use a specific company like Wordpress or Blogger because any website can be used as a blog like MP's blogs for example. That might be one of the reasons that no one company has a monopoly on the blogger market.
I personally don't find Blogger that user-friendly! Compared to the social networking sites or an email website, such as Hotmail, I think it is initially quite confusing to navigate seemlessly between pages. I found that in clicking the 'Home' page button, I was directed onto one of my published blogs. I think it should be easier to get back to your initial starting page, to review all the blogs you currently have running.
ReplyDeleteIn comparison to wordpress at least blogger is simpler, if only because wordpress is ridiculously open-ended. I know people who spent like a month tinkering with their new wordpress site with all the enthusiasm of a 15 year-old pruning his or her myspace, only to give the whole thing up after one post. In fact I'm pretty sure that's what I did a couple of years ago. My single post is probably still out there, wasting anybody's time who dares to read it.
ReplyDeleteHaving used a number of different blogging sites, I can see how “Word-press” would be desirable to more dedicated bloggers. Although more complicated from a user perspective, with hard work and perseverance the aspiring writer is able to create something that appears far more professional – in terms of originality of layout, and graphics – than writers who use “Blogger”. However, as Eva pointed out, even “Blogger” is not completely fool proof.
ReplyDeleteThe increase in popularity of social networking sites, such as “Facebook” and “Twitter”, has also had a huge impact on the blogging world. Status updates, and “tweets” have become the bite-sized blog posts of the 21st Century. For those of us who are more long-winded with our thoughts and opinions, “Facebook” has become an invaluable advertising arena for our blog spot of choice.
It is perhaps, in part, because of this available advertising platform that no single blog site has grasped the majority of the market. There is no need to amass huge numbers of friends on the same site, as there are other ways of reaching a large audience.