Carl Setzer

I've blogged on this site for years. Back when I chose Blogger, it and WordPress were very comparable. I'd messed with it on a hosted site some time before Google acquired Blogger, and when Blogger became part of the Googleverse, it seemed inevitable that it would dominate the blogging space. And I was dead wrong. Blogger's sites are pretty clunky, and very limited. And pretty much the whole world of Blogger is managed by Google. No larger ecosystem of themes, plugins, what-have-you to expand the functionality of the sites. Heck, no world changing themes. Heck, even the best are yawn-inducingly dull. And don't get me started on the clunkiness of the Android app (it would be ironic if the Apple Blogger app was more productive, but I digress). It does NOT like uploading images. Most of the time, the app will freeze, then there'll be a uneditable local file on the my phone. And there are times simple text will do the same thing. Additionally, I love the system that...

Half this year... We're moving into the middle of the year. Striking to me. I know it's a trope But time seems to pass by Faster... ....Far faster .......Than before With that, I'm thinking of returning to Blogger, at least for a while. Recapturing my roots, I guess. As well as simplifying things. My life became overfull, with so very much slipping. Quality; so very important to me, failing. Quality and Mr. Pirsig, my main take away from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . Blogger's not as clean as WordPress. There's more work to getting the site just right. I'm curious to see if I can be satisfied. We shall see!

I'm a bit behind on my reading, so just got done with Om Malik's post from November 23rd: Some Thoughts on the New WordPress.com and Mac App I'm excited by what WordPress incorporated. Things like streamlined viewing, being able to view stats for multiple sites in one window, the stand-alone app, and the increased speed. All in all, WordPress takes blogging seriously and has an eye towards the future. Over the years, WordPress earned my admiration and respect. I've come to actually love the platform. When first striking out with blogging, my ended up choosing Blogger. For many reasons I felt it was best...at the time. The one thing I didn't anticipate on: Google's acquisition. When that happened, though, I was rather excited. Google has an amazing array of resources and tons of the smartest people on earth. However, as Om noted earlier , Google doesn't get social. Google+'s lack of vigor demonstrates this quite well. (I can also add the coexistence...

I've been exploring WordPress over the last few months (see my blog NotJustSeattle.com ). I really, really like the platform and have found so many benefits over Blogger. Plus, watching the demise of Google Reader a few months back makes me wonder about the long-term status of this. With Google+ garnering the lion's share of Google attention and public focus, I wonder how long they'll continue to support the platform. Blogger seems like a neglected stepchild. With all this, I commenced planning out my migration. It's not appearing as clean as I'd hoped, but the research is pretty early on. It seems my URL might be the biggest challenge. Plus, I need to decide if I will just move this to a site hosted by WordPress.com, or pony up for something hosted by BlueHost or GoDaddy (or....). So, taking a thoughtful and well planned approach on this. It'll be interesting to see where it leads. Any ideas, hints or tips? Just leave me a comment. I'd be quite happy ...

When I logged into Blogger this evening, I was greeted with the option for a new interface. Being forever enchanted with all things new, I plunged forth. I like what I've seen so far. The interface is cleaner. From a design perspective, a much better use of white space. None of the old functionality is lost, though some of it looks different (stats is what I noticed right off). All in all, I like it well. And it's the most significant update from Google on the Blogger platform in some time. My only disappointment is the lack of new features. I'd love to have an auto-publish to Twitter built in. Well, that's the biggest for me. I would've loved to see new features; more than just a new layout. Well, that's what I have for an hour or so's worth of exploration.