I started out using Blogger, so I can speak from experience and say ignorance is one reason. That's usually an ugly word, but if you go back to what it means, I didn't know about WordPress at the time I started a BlogSpot blog. Textbook definition case of ignorance. Then a good friend gave me some hosting space and a WP installation, even helped me import all my posts and comments, so I could try WP out. And there's just no going back.

But I know a lot of people are more with it than I am. I've been a computer programmer forever, but only playing with this web stuff a few years now. So maybe people who know about WordPress and choose Blogger instead can tell me why? Cause I see nothing but trouble.

While I can't speak from a personal standpoint, I do believe that the free version of blogger offers more customization than WP, (although you'd know , running a free WP blog currently).

Here are some basic differences and advantages offered between the two, at least some insight on why people would choose blogger:
http://rightweb.wordpress.com/2006/0...and-wordpress/

It's amazing how much the free hosted WordPress doesn't let you do! Kind of disappointing, honestly.

But when I ran Blogger, I had the hardest time finding templates or understanding how to change them.

Wordpress is so cheap to run on hosting. You can get hosting so cheap nowadays why cheap it out and get less features. Man up people.

You need to be specific in what you are comparing. Comparing a self-hosted WordPress blog with a free service like Blogspot doesn't make sense.

But if you want to compare wordpress.com with blogspot.com the choice is pretty clear that blogspot comes out way ahead.

WordPress.

1. You're limited in what javascript you can use in your blog.
2. You have to pay for the ability to edit your template.
3. You can't monetize your blog.
4. You get 50 MB of space if you need more you have to pay.
5. Creating your own template is ridiculously beyond the scope of the average person.

Blogger.
1. You're not limited in javascript you can use in your template.
2. You don't have to pay to edit your template.
3. You can monetize your blog any way you see fit.
4. You get 1024 MB of space
5. Easy template modification/creation

Blogger has about a dozen templates you can choose by going to Template and clicking the link "Pick New Template" to choose your template. There are hundreds of free templates made/ported by others you can use on your blog and all you need to do is copy/paste the code into your template. Or you can DL the template into your HD and then just upload it by clicking the button that reads "upload."

Had I known about wordpress.com when I started my current blogs I'd be looking to have to pay for more space because with over 300 posts I'm already at 30MB. But since my blog is on blogspot I still have a long way to go before I run out of the free space and by the time I do Google is probably going to add more space to the blog accounts.

Editing my templates has been a breeze because even I can copy/paste the html/CSS to make my changes or upload (or copy/paste) one of the hundreds of free templates available and I didn't have to pay any money to do it.

Blogging shouldn't be accessible just to those people that can afford to pay to; edit a template, more than 50MB of space, hosting or have the knowledge and patience to deal with webhosting. Blogging should be available to everyone from the 13 year old kid to an 80 year old woman sitting in her condo in Boca Raton and that's why they should use Blogger.

I personally started out a blogger blog too.. Just what Learning Newbie said, out of curiosity. And I think it is also one of the best free available blog hosting site to go to. As for the templates, I design and customize them according to my taste...

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

It's amazing how much the free hosted WordPress doesn't let you do! Kind of disappointing, honestly.

But when I ran Blogger, I had the hardest time finding templates or understanding how to change them.

I use blogspot in all of my blogs...first, I always ended in error for manipulating the design but later it's easy for me on how to change the look and how to customize it...

Originally Posted by MrBrownThumb

You need to be specific in what you are comparing. Comparing a self-hosted WordPress blog with a free service like Blogspot doesn't make sense.

But if you want to compare wordpress.com with blogspot.com the choice is pretty clear that blogspot comes out way ahead.

WordPress.

1. You're limited in what javascript you can use in your blog.
2. You have to pay for the ability to edit your template.
3. You can't monetize your blog.
4. You get 50 MB of space if you need more you have to pay.
5. Creating your own template is ridiculously beyond the scope of the average person.

Blogger.
1. You're not limited in javascript you can use in your template.
2. You don't have to pay to edit your template.
3. You can monetize your blog any way you see fit.
4. You get 1024 MB of space
5. Easy template modification/creation

Blogger has about a dozen templates you can choose by going to Template and clicking the link "Pick New Template" to choose your template. There are hundreds of free templates made/ported by others you can use on your blog and all you need to do is copy/paste the code into your template. Or you can DL the template into your HD and then just upload it by clicking the button that reads "upload."

Had I known about wordpress.com when I started my current blogs I'd be looking to have to pay for more space because with over 300 posts I'm already at 30MB. But since my blog is on blogspot I still have a long way to go before I run out of the free space and by the time I do Google is probably going to add more space to the blog accounts.

Editing my templates has been a breeze because even I can copy/paste the html/CSS to make my changes or upload (or copy/paste) one of the hundreds of free templates available and I didn't have to pay any money to do it.

Blogging shouldn't be accessible just to those people that can afford to pay to; edit a template, more than 50MB of space, hosting or have the knowledge and patience to deal with webhosting. Blogging should be available to everyone from the 13 year old kid to an 80 year old woman sitting in her condo in Boca Raton and that's why they should use Blogger.

Great comparisons... It's really informative... If I would choose between the two of them, I prefer Blogger because it doesn't need any payment just to edit your template and it's also user-friendly because creating a blog is just so easy. Even if you don't have knowledge about web design and programming, you can still create your own blog...

Blogger is best place for beginners. It's free to use, easy to customize, open to monetize and has very good future. Why would anyone ignore Blogger?

I've never used either, nor do I intend to (my server has more than enough space to handle whatever upcoming stuff I want to put on it), but here's how I see the issue:

1) Blogger is owned by Google. Name recognition is a big thing. WordPress has name recognition too, but it's nothing compared to big G's.

2) Because Blogger offers so much more, it seems to be a preferred target for low-grade SEOs and spammers who just want to create a bunch of mindless sales marketing schlock related to whatever TV Show on DVD or jewellery they're trying to sell. And if the blog ever gets banned, Big G hasn't yet seemed to tie the blog into whatever it is the blogger is trying to market. This seems to be the big one by far.

I don't know if Big G would ever tie a portion of its search engine algorithm to the detection/removal of "Blogger SEOs", but it would be long overdue if they did.

3) The whole "monetize your blog" thing.

Again, I haven't played with either and have no desire or reason to. This is just outside observation.

Both have positives and negatives so i use them both but blogger i find quick and easy to use so that will also appeal to a lot of people.

Well they have something on their mind they wish to share and maybe don't want the hassle of owning their own blog. Now they go use bloggers and it's hassle free.

Don't get me wrong I own many blogs all on individual domain names but still blogger is an affordable way to blog.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

I started out using Blogger, so I can speak from experience and say ignorance is one reason. That's usually an ugly word, but if you go back to what it means, I didn't know about WordPress at the time I started a BlogSpot blog. Textbook definition case of ignorance. Then a good friend gave me some hosting space and a WP installation, even helped me import all my posts and comments, so I could try WP out. And there's just no going back.

But I know a lot of people are more with it than I am. I've been a computer programmer forever, but only playing with this web stuff a few years now. So maybe people who know about WordPress and choose Blogger instead can tell me why? Cause I see nothing but trouble.

Hey, I plead guilty on the ignorance part (see my recent thread in this subforum for the evidence).

I would however like to add that one advantage to using Google's Blogger is that you can improve your SEO by leaving comments on peoples blogs.

I just ordered a WordPress t-shirt. You know when the homies see me in this I'm definately going to get my respect on the block. Probably help me pick up some hos too.

Originally Posted by MrBrownThumb

You need to be specific in what you are comparing. Comparing a self-hosted WordPress blog with a free service like Blogspot doesn't make sense.

Sure it does. I really had the user interface in mind when I wrote this. You've presented a list of answers to satisfy my curiosity, and I can understand how or why you might feel it's off kilt to compare Blogger with 1 GB against WordPress with 150 GB. But in response, you have to remember that Blogger doesn't allow you to self host, like WordPress does. If you're in love with one application or the other, that's a big deal.

Originally Posted by MrBrownThumb

But if you want to compare wordpress.com with blogspot.com the choice is pretty clear that blogspot comes out way ahead.

You've made a pretty good case that the free hosing from Blogger is better than the free hosting from WordPress.com. How about the actual applications that blog masters use to make their blogs? I radically prefer WordPress, enough that I'll take my measly 50 MB until I'm ready to upgrade to my own host. And then I'll do that instead because the software is that much better, at least to me, that it's worth paying a 3rd party to run it for me.

Originally Posted by Noobstein

I would however like to add that one advantage to using Google's Blogger is that you can improve your SEO by leaving comments on peoples blogs.

You can leave comments with Wordpress too.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

Sure it does. I really had the user interface in mind when I wrote this. You've presented a list of answers to satisfy my curiosity, and I can understand how or why you might feel it's off kilt to compare Blogger with 1 GB against WordPress with 150 GB. But in response, you have to remember that Blogger doesn't allow you to self host, like WordPress does. If you're in love with one application or the other, that's a big deal.

Not it doesn't. It makes about as much sense as comparing a light bulb to a flashlight. I don't know what you find so radically different in the user interface as they're both pretty much the same and if anything the Blogger user interface is more intuitive.

Blogger allows you to not only blog with a custom domain while they host the content but you can blog on your own host and publish via FTP or sFTP. The FTP publishing option has been around for years. What you can't do is DL the platform like you can with WordPress.

But since you want to compare apples to oranges lets look at some difference I've noticed.

I recently convinced a visitor to my blog to start a blog. Since he already had a traditional website he choose WP as his platform.

wiseacre-gardens.com/wordpress/?p=10

That's his latest post on his blog. Do you have any idea what it is about?

www.amaryllisbulbs.org/2008/01/amaryllis-hippeastrum-mont-blanc.html

That's the latest post on one of my Blogger blogs. Can you guess what my post is about?

Lets look at uploading a picture on Blogger. When I'm composing I click the image icon and I'm presented with a pop-up window that asks for the url of the image hosted on line or to upload from my HD. When I select my option I can also choose the size and layout of the image as it will show on my blog.

On WP when you click on the image icon you're also given a pop-up but with these options:

Image URL
Image description
Alignment
Dimensions
Border
Vertical space
Horizontal space

Ok, but the image is on my HD and I have to scroll down below the WYSIWYG editor and choose the upload feature there. As far as I can see it doesn't give me the options I just had above for size or layout.

What if I took a video that I want to share, how do I get it onto WP.com? I can't unless I pay for extra space. I can upload it to YouTube, Google etc and embed the code into the post. On Blogger I can upload the video clip as easy as finding a pic on my HD and clicking upload.

So what's so great about a user interface that creates extra steps to upload a simple pic or a video?

With Blogger I can email posts to my blog and they publish automatically. Can I do this on WP.com? I can't find an option to do this. Given how easy it makes posting I would think it is there but I can't see it.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

You've made a pretty good case that the free hosing from Blogger is better than the free hosting from WordPress.com. How about the actual applications that blog masters use to make their blogs? I radically prefer WordPress, enough that I'll take my measly 50 MB until I'm ready to upgrade to my own host. And then I'll do that instead because the software is that much better, at least to me, that it's worth paying a 3rd party to run it for me.

It isn't the application you prefer, it is the plug-ins. But those same plug-ins can slow your blog down and since they're third party creations they leave your content and your host account vulnerable. And what of the blog master I've read complaining about WP becoming bloated after X number of posts and plug-ins?

Would you buy a cell phone from me you couldn't flip open, dial on, receive calls or take a pic unless you downloaded or bought a plug-in?

If you really want to compare a downloadable, pseudo CMS like WP to anything you should compare it to a legit CMS and see how it stacks up.

wiseacre-gardens.com/wordpress/?p=10

If you're talking about a hosting your own WordPress install that's easily changed.

I prefer hosting the application because that gives me more direct access to the files. Not everyone will need or want that kind of access, but there are advantages to it.

For example can you add a .htaccess file on Blogger? I don't think you can. Can you add a robots.txt file? Both can be very useful to have access to. Same for all your files.

But I agree that not everyone will want or need that kind of access. Hosting my own WordPress application works for me. Others might prefer the ease of using Blogger.

WordPress (the application) isn't meant to be a complete CMS. It's meant to be a limited CMS for the purpose of blogging and it does that very well. It's not perfect, but neither is any CMS I've encountered. WP does need to be tweaked some to take full advantage of what it can do, but it's a good program.

Originally Posted by vangogh

wiseacre-gardens.com/wordpress/?p=10

If you're talking about a hosting your own WordPress install that's easily changed.

For example can you add a .htaccess file on Blogger? I don't think you can. Can you add a robots.txt file? Both can be very useful to have access to. Same for all your files.

WP does need to be tweaked some to take full advantage of what it can do, but it's a good program.

I know it is and I know there is a SEO plug-in but I used that example to illustrate my point about the plug-ins and that if WP was the best thing since sliced bread why there is even a need to do it to begin with.

I'm not self hosting my Blogger blogs so I can't speak to whether or not you can get access to that stuff when you self host but you don't get access to it on Blogspot or WordPress.com hosting.

Don't get me wrong I have nothing against WP or WP hosting I just don't see the point in comparing WP and Blogger since they aren't really the same thing. And their differences are even greater when you're comparing Blogger to hosting your own WP install like Learning wants to do.

Originally Posted by MrBrownThumb

Not it doesn't. It makes about as much sense as comparing a light bulb to a flashlight.

Sure it does. People use either to accomplish the job of publishing and maintaining a blog. WordPress lets you do this free if you want to use their server, or they let you use their software free if you want it on your own server. Blogger, well, it's free hosting on Google, or a different CMS. A light bulb and a flashlight both provide light, like Blogger and WordPress both provide blogmasters a way to update their blog. You could try to compare a flashlight and light bulb when you need light in a place that doesn't have light fixtures, and the flashlight wins hands down.

Again, I'm really more interested in the applications to both. You're saying they're different and WordPress is harder to use because it asks you the description of an image, and gives you the opportunity to show it at half size if it's a really big one. I guess that answers my question. You use Blogger if you want ultra simplified so you don't have to learn the concepts involved, and you use WordPress if you like seeing how things work, or having themes. So thanks for helping me understand that.