Bloggeratto

I know, i know, i am quite behind in my posting schedule, but lets forget about that and let´s get it on.

Part 1: The Peripherial Value

In this post i plan to respond to that question i have recived by e-mail, chat and also in the comments of this blog.

Last week it was announced that Blogger v3.0 was now a feature set complete build and that well, that was it by Blogger Buzz to what i went and said O RLY?,etc,etc.

that exchange of words can be read directly : Here

Post and Comments.

I was not the only one who thought that way of course and i will not be the last, so lets start with the direct concerns/opinions pressed to me on it:

Singpolyma fist comment was:

I don't see what everyone's big stink is about here... What happened to all the things we love about Blogger BETA? Let me list just a few:

1) Categories! The #1 request and hack has finally come!
2) A way better widget-definition language (different, but definitely better in almost all cases)
3) Nicer archive widgets
4) Change fonts/colours and link lists with no code for those non-techies
5) HTML widget option to bridge some hacks and the non-geek world
6) Comment feeds (total and per-post)
7) Category feeds too, duh

To name a few. They hit us with all of this at once in the original BETA release and we were overwhelmed and overjoyed. Why say now that they've ironed out many bugs that it's not ready? It's past ready. There's some things I wish were different (peek-a-boo allowed in code, inline comment form allowed to work, XHTML compliance), but overall it is more than 100% better than Blogger Classic, and as always more than 300% better than any other free blogging service that I have seen.

And my answer was:

"I don't see what everyone's big stink is about here"

well, maybe you don´t see it, but since i have used every single one of the top options in blogging platforms and even some experimental ones, i will tell you what we still need in a following post.

(maybe is the thing that i test too much software all the time?)

now, all that you have mentioned ( not to be harsh harsh) but is irrelevant, because is the minimum expected compared to what the other blogging platforms already have.

In this thing new web 2.0 game, is all about the peripherials for the blogger platform should have and the options it should give, and how Blogger has a very broken brand in terms to empower their users besides freedom, in this case it´s almost like the beatles song "all you need is love" just replacing love with freedom, freedom is no longer enough when you have tht 90% of the user will not be able to code their way in

Gve us option to upgrade, give us integration, give us a strong brand, give us peripherials...

About that last bit, that refers in the way for example wordpress does things with their plugins and how they actually work with other companies to bring special plugins for their platform, how the community is formed that allows a more widespread distribution when a plugins gets popular, i could really go on and on.

I know Blogger from hardly a month after it was launched, and before it being bought by google it was even selling domains, it was testing audioblogger for later integrations and even was preparing photo handling (wich got used for the ghost like brandless service of blogger photo hosting) and even was developing into future podcasting, wich is no surprise why after evan williams left blogger he formed Odeo leaving with those very ideas and even bought out the oportunity of hosting audioblogger that originally was hosted by audiopost in order to test the waters.

I know Blogger is changing for good, never before in the blogger v2.0 the blogger buzz blog started to be so active again, never before blogger employes gave a step forward to the users and never before they seemed to be eager of feedback (given the recent google survey call for it) and never before the company offered actual apologies to their users left and right.

should i stop throwing them punches?

NO WAY, we must never let a corporation to rest in their laurels, we must push them around hard in order they don´t stop innovating, more to a company that takes that in their motto.

There are already lots of blogges that send too much kisses to the B.

I Really think, you are just way too good, you are just such a nice guy about everything and that i got you in the highest regards. you truly have a heart of gold man..

:D


i will explain a point i made in my response, and that is the one "peripherials"

this can be percived as not as important as the blog features and dashboard features all by themselves, but it is important, peripherials and how they spread into a network are what mantains a platform popularity and thriving becuase it gives it something beyond the initial core concept of it.

not even a week before this is that Phydeaux3 discovers the new widget spreading documentations that is going to give life to a new way of spreading hacks, mods, tweaks and add ons into Blogger, this seems the direct response to Wordpress Plugins that can also be made into One Click experiences so ANYONE in the most full sense of the word can add something extra to their blog.

This not only helps non-techies or Rookies, this also help the common Blogger user along to the power user and gives the Bleet an option on how spread their exploits to others faster and even removing the need to explain the how it works while doing so.

Sigpolyma then replies:

While I see some of that (one must not let the company think that they are done and can stop working now), I still contend that Blogger (and especially BETA) is more feature-complete than any other free blogging service (it is not fair to compare to WordPress, since that only works in a feature-complete way when you have your own hosting...)

I guess the question would be, if there's another service that whips Blogger why are you still here? ;)

And to that i Reply here:

The thing is that Blogger is Still the number one Blogging platform in the true sense of the word, even if this now matters less and less with the recent upgrades of the hublogs platforms like spaces, the very soon Yahoo360 renewal and looming MySpace upgrade that are now dominating over Blogger in terms of spread.

In the true-Blogging world, Blogger still has to raise the bet even more if it wants to stop wordpress,movable and Lj to continue their advances.

But the most important thing is that is a matter of Brand. this was recently sensed with the Blogger v3.0 being now as the main option already to create a new blog and the way blogger is changing for good that i guess has to be more with Blogger getting more Google integrated that with a sudden change of heart in the way they were treating the service.

As at one time Greg (from Freshblog fame) said to me:

It´s all about google having content to search from and to sell ads to.

(to simplify his message)

wich they could do in a more efficent way with blogger from a long ago if they wanted, so that is why i always said that there must have been something in the original Blogger buy out contract that made this not viable to Google until now.

Blogger from the profit way of view is a mine of gold untapped, so Google, mine away like you want, just give us more features or some more options to make them ourselves.

Now, around the question why i stick with blogger, and more why stick with a Blogger related Blog,this is something i get asked a lot lately, i was asked to make a internet tech blog instead, because lots of people think that is way more exciting.

Then others tell me that if i moved to wordpress, i could get hell of a lot more popular and do more for it.

So why stick with Blogger?:

My response to that is still composed the same way that before, with 3 simple reasons:

1.-I like challenges.

I think they are more interesting, and i like the chaotic freedom Blogger offers, and i do reiterate, the moment Blogger stops being a open platform, the moment i would walk out of it in no time aiming for Wordpress and Wallop instead.

2.-There is not something amazing enough for me to Back out of Blogger.

No,not even full wordpress.

3.-I am a very stubborn man

Hahahah, no explanations needed here do we?

Manas Comments:

Now, I don't think that by announcing that "Blogger Beta is feature complete", Blogger is saying they will not be adding any new features.

They are saying that Blogger Beta now has all the normal features that the old Blogger had.So we can expect them to keep on adding new features..

As Blogger Help says..

"All this is just the beginning, with much more to come. Dynamic serving will provide us with some interesting new ways to sort and search blogs by topic or keyword, for instance.We've got some other fun possibilities in mind as well, like fancier template editing and more posting features. The sky's the limit, so stay tuned for more features and updates!"

Errr, sorry Mans, but you are wrong.

The feature complete states just that, that this version is feature complete, and the set of funtions for it to officially launch it is complete.

Now, about the adding of new features, when i said they will never add a feature more to it?

but since you have no sense of Blogger history, let me tell you how it was with v2.0, and why i am hesitat to accept Blogger word for it until i see it for myself:

1.-Back when Blogger v2.0 was launched Blogger took over a year to launch even announcemets of new features, let alone add them.

2.-Blogger is very weird about new features so far, i mean, The Bleet discovered the RSS feed feature along with tons of other features, if it werent for us, no one would have ever known about them since they were never introduced in a Official form.

3.-Singpolyma is right in the angle that the feature set as it is more than what the rest has in true Blogging platforms even if it lacks a hell lot of other things, in that part is gonna be hard for Blogger to feel compelled to add new features to it.

But, there is hope considering how Blogger has changed for good, so i would love they could prove me wrong.

This post continues here