Blog Software Perspectives

This directory of general sources and links on comparing alternative Weblog software providers used to be part of Al Macintyre's Blog Software directory, but it got split off here when that directory of Blog Software seemed to be growing towards unwieldy size so Al now moving everything from it except the basic directory.  There is more stuff like this in Blog Books directory. Watch out - no collection can be complete or up to date, so you do need to correlate information from multiple sources.

• For a dynamite overview of the different Blog Software Types and why one or another might be best for your needs, check out John Hiler's Blogging Software Roundup.

• Check out Understanding Weblogs article by Wei-Meng Lee that shows you how to build a simple weblog using Radio UserLand, then she explains some fundamentals behind weblogging.

• I have moved many additional info links (that used to be in Blog Software or "Blog Software Perspectives") to Blog Books story which is now up to a dozen different books available with links to reviews on most of them.  I plan to move other types of background info similarly to some new story as yet to be named.   I might later create a "Blog Articles" directory of dynamite journalism that explains this technology.
• I did an earlier Blog Software MT and RU story with profuse links to people portraying differences between Movable Type (MT) and Radio Userland (RU), advantages and disadvantages, planning to do similarly named comparison stories in the future.  Some references and links to similar information on other Blog Software sources also got in there, somewhat in context, such as: Blogger and LiiveJournal.
• The right Blog software for you might be based on which works best with which Browser, Computer Operating System, the type of Blog you want to create, and what kind of blogger you are.   There is no one best blog software, because different users have different needs.
  • Kuro5hin has a taxonomy on types of bloggers.
  • Steve Outing has an article on types of weblogs.
  • We might disagree with some of these categorizations, but they are great starting points.
• John Hiler has a family tree flow chart of types of Blog software.
• Check out the Google Directory of Weblog Software Resources.
• About com has a collection of guides to what weblogging is all about.
• What is Klogging?
  • See Phil Wolff explanation at Ryze.
• Alison Blog Fish told Al about Column Two's review of a weblog comparison site.
  • QUOTE
  • It works like this: you pick up to five different packages to compare, and it builds you a table of features, showing which package does what. Very, very handy.
  • UNQUOTE
• Here is a humongous chart of over 50 common blog tool features (listed vertically) from which Blog Software (listed horizontally) with green check marks for matches and red crosses for not.  It may be simpler for you to select a handful of features you most interested in, and get selected list of which blog software vendors provide that, or compare two blog tools of your choice.   I think this picture needs other icons to supplement the green check mark ... this feature is available as a plug-in ... this feature can only be used if you know HTML.
• Biz Stone book on Blogging = Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content.  My first impression of the book is that it has great links, but the author, as a Blogger customer is insensitive to differences between the vendors.  He often explains how something is done for some topic or other, using how it is done in Blogger, without making the distinction that some other Weblogging software does this a different way.
• O'Reilly published Essential Blogging, which uses a cluster of authors familiar with each of several different Weblogging software.  Radio Userland was not too pleased with how they were presented by the book and organized this discussion group about that book.  The book includes: Blogger; Blosxom; Moveable Type; Radio Userland.
• Dr Mark Foster's Guide to (Web) Blog Software Hosting and Information.  I hate his color combination (hostile to eyes that are not young), but fortunately when I printed it out, the result was eminently readable.  He has write-ups on about 55 different outfits.
• John Robb of Radio Userland explains advantages of using good quality weblog software over using the best that Internet discussion groups have to offer.
• Weblog Madness Directory.
• Weblogs Compendium.  Incidentally, I have multiple links in my Search Engine Tips to places where for free you can register your weblog so that it shows up in the various directories of weblogs and the major search engines.

How many weblogs are out there, and what is the market share of the individual vendors?  This is a recurring, with conflicting answers.  I have posted some clues, as have some other people:

• My Search Engine Tips include links to weblog directories at Search Engines.
• Nov 18, 2002 - My round up of major clues that I have so far for answering this question.
• Sep 30, 2002 - How many weblogs are indexed by various weblog directories.
• Sep 11, 2002 - I review Wired article on the subject.
• Radio Free Blogistan found a Compendium of Weblog Resources.
• Sebastien Paquet Weblogs by Profession is a directory of professions active in weblogging, in which for many, but not all, he has links to directories for each of the professions that he lists.
  • • Consultants
    • Educators and (old) Teachnology
    • Journalists
    • Knowledge Management people
    • Lawyers and Academic Law
    • Librarians
    • Researchers
    • Software developers
    • Web designers and information architects

  • Check out Sebastian's article on using Weblogging as a research tool, the history of this technology, just past the example sites, to the beginning of the weblog boom.  He says:

    • QUOTE

    • There were around a thousand weblogs in mid-2000.

    • As of mid-2002, estimates put the number of weblogs at around a half-million, with the Blogger system alone currently reporting more than 350,000 registered users and creating a new weblog every 40 seconds, or more than 60,000 a month (Steven Levy, Living in the Blog-osphere, August 2002). However, as Rebecca Blood pointed out, many of the new weblogs lean more (if not completely) towards the inward-looking online diary form and would not qualify as weblogs under our definition.

    • UNQUOTE

  • Sebastian has some great links such as to Blogroots Directory of Weblogging Resources.

• Also see Steve Outing Taxonomy (Terminology) of Types of Weblogging

Last update: 01/05/2003; 1:12:32 PM.