Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Blog applications comparison - Blogger and Typepad

Blogger has been adding numerous features, and everything is now free! I tried to upgrade to a paid level, but was told all features previously at paid levels are now available at the one level. Plus, they keep adding new features and have now removed the advertising. Since Blogger is owned by Google, my guess is this was changed as a result of the company going public. But, how do they plan to bring in revenue? I'm not sure what they are doing.

One feature I thought has been lacking is a search window for the individual blogs. You will see one now appears in the toolbar at the top of this blog. I haven't tested it out yet, but since my blog seems to have been picked up by Google, it should be indexed. If you run into a problem, do let me know. The other feature I would like to see is subject indexing, so that I can categorize individual posts with subject headings.

There are some other nifty features on the toolbar at top, including a link to another randomly chosen, recently updated blog ("Next blog"). Kind of fun to surf through other blogs, especially to see the variety in layouts.

I have been testing out blogging on Typepad as well. You can take a look--I have started creating one for my book club: http://conniecrosby.typepad.com/bookclub/ . I haven't put any postings in it yet. I do like the calendar, and the ability to add books and their photos. However, it doesn't have the flexibility of Blogger--in Blogger I can work with the underlying HTML and adapt things whereas Typepad has preset features that you pick and choose from. I could add a calendar and the books feature if I can find them available somewhere (I have a lead on the books function). They do have another version, Movable Type, which is software for use on your own host and which allows you to fully adapt. Typepad is meant to be basic for those who want a quick set up.

So far, I would say if you are just starting out into the blogging game, Blogger is your best bet and keeps on getting better.

2 comments:

Scott said...

Hi Connie - I agree with you on this Blogger does just keep getting better. I would also agree that the ability to catagorise posts is an add on I would love it to have and is one I would actually PAY for. Having played around with Typepad and Radioland before, I find Blogger the easiest to use and abuse [p.s. Some good books on your typepad book club list. Always good to see people reading jose saramago]

Connie Crosby said...

Thanks, Scott. There are actually about 80 books in my book club's list, but unless I post them all on the front page, I have no way to link to them on Typepad. I have submitted an archives of past books as a request.

Also forgot to mention I am doing a free trial with Typepad. Trials are for 30 days, but if you go to the Movable Type website they give a code for a 90 day free trial. That is what I am doing.