How Blogger is Blowing It

August 30, 2007 · Comments

Several of my friends keep a blog using Blogger as a service. My first “real” blog was on Blogger (before that, in 1998, I was table-copying a “journal” using Trellix). I like the service, generally, especially when I started getting into the template and editing all over the place. I credit Blogger with helping me learn about HTML. No, really! But I’m frustrated, and I guess really, I’m frustrated at Google, who bought them a few years back. Here’s what’s going wrong:

Conversations

I love to comment on blogs. It’s why THIS blog works so well. But on Blogger, they haven’t caught on to add a “subscribe to comments” option. In fact, the only innovations were in how to make captcha more annoying. Make it easy for me to be notified that someone commented after my comment, so that I can try and enrich the conversation there.

Widgets

Sure, you can hack your sidebar and stuff things in, if you’re a reasonably brave copy/paster. But make it EASY, dammit. Make it so that people can use the things that are out there. Make widgets as easy as adding a picture.

Open-Faced Theme Design

Blogger’s occasionally putting out a theme, so I won’t poop on them TOO badly, but Wordpress has TONS of new themes all the time, and people are creating more and more useful, clean, simple designs, even for the free and hosted version. Please, Blogger, make the blogs prettier.

So, I’m not pooping on my several friends who blog on the Blogger platform. Several VERY important people I love and admire use that platform. I’m just saying I wish they served you better.

Be kind, Blogger. Please rewind.

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  • Thanks for your article, Now there is more reason to comment than ever before! This is a great fir for our project!
  • GP
    you're right... this is so timely...
    @mark... i agree about the trackback
    and while it is simple in certain respects; given the features of other platforms... it does miss the mark

    gp in montana
  • I like Blogger because it is simple. I got to change quite a lot of things thanks to a different template.

    I don't know about the subscription for comments to a single post, although in the setting it is set to yes.
  • I use both self-hosted WordPress and Blogger, and I have to say in defense of Blogger that is is VERY easy to use. The only major complaint I have about the platform is the lack of trackback information in your dashboard. I love that when I log into one of my WordPress blogs, I see who is linking to me and where. Surprised that Blogger defaults (I believe) to have trackbacking within a post turned off.
  • As always, great point. I don't know if you've missed out on the new Blogger update about 6 months ago or so, but you CAN use widgets in Blogger. In fact, I think it's easier to add a widget in blogger than it is using Wordpress. The only down side is that if you already had a blog before the update, you will have to rebuild all your modifications if you want to switch to using them.
  • I used blogger for a while and when someone turned me onto wordpress it was like a ray of light that had come down through the clouds. I love wordpress and I've never had any issues with it ever. I haven't gone back and seen what changes have been made the past few years to blogger, but from your post here, I'm not missing much.
  • Good points, and I completely agree, especially with the thing about the comments system. The commenting system, and the lack of an email address of those who comment (which is kind of related to subscribing to comments) almost made me switch to wordpress.
  • Ahem - it's supposed to be about the content - not the packaging.

    I see your point, however, and let me tell you that as a developer of an upcoming multimedia blogging platform - it's a lot of work - be glad for what you DO have.
  • beckymccray
    Trackbacks are still handled by Blogger, with no control by the user. Only come links to your posts will show up. No built in facility for sending a trackback ping. I don't like the way it works, either.
  • I left blogger for one reason: no trackbacks. Still the case? I don't know.
  • beckymccray
    Chris, to install outside embed codes, you select Add a Page Element, choose HTML/Javascript, give it a title if you want, and then paste the code. You re-order them by drag-and-drop.
  • Very interesting points, all. Richard, you're right. I haven't touched my blogger install in well over a year. I didn't know about the widgets. Does that let you drop in 3rd party stuff easily? Like embed code stuff?
  • Hey Chris,

    I'm not that big on changing themes very often so while you're right about the limited choices, it's not a problem for me.

    And as far as the sidebar stuff, there is a drag and drop interface for page layout on Blogger now. The number of available widgets is limited compared to what I see people doing with their Wordpress blogs, but it's a lot more rare to have to copy/paste things directly into my template nowadays. It's basically a checkbox and then an ajax-y drag and drop interface for laying out stuff on the page.
  • beckymccray
    I've worked with both Blogger and WordPress. I'll comment on what Blogger offers right now.

    Looking at my Dashboard, Blogger offers per-post and site-wide comment feeds for my site. The trick is that each user may chose to activate them or not. And some templates don't include links to those feeds by default.

    Sidebar editing is now pretty easy, with decent pre-built items.

    Lots fewer themes for Blogger than WordPress. A few outside designers are creating. Full theme editing is available. I'm a big fan of the Stretch Denim theme, and I use it a bunch.

    Just more info from my personal experience.
  • Wordpress has a very powerful templating language (otherwise known as "PHP") which allows you to do just about anything. Unfortunately, that comes at the price of security.

    Keep in mind when you're trying out that cool new theme you downloaded, it could be running arbitrary commands or phoning home with your passwords. I assume this is why the free Wordpress.com doesn't let you edit the templates.
  • The equivalent to Blogger would Wordpress.com, which is more limited than Blogger when it comes to themes. Yes, Wordpress.com has a bunch to pick from, but it's only those, or you could pay a bit to edit only the CSS.

    Blogger, on the other hand, allows you to edit the whole code of a theme. You could write a custom theme if you wanted to (and I think there are a bunch out there).

    Typepad.com, as a comparison, only offers CSS editing unless you pay for the most expensive account.

    So from a web designer point of view, Blogger isn't that bad of a choice for a free blogging system. I'd go with a self hosted Wordpress blog though.
  • Thats a rather timely posting by you sir considering the other storm brewing for the service

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6970368.stm
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