After posting the PR Face2Face interviews with the IABC chairmen, Neville Hobson has been on my case to get a trackback system installed.
I like Blogger. I like its ease-of-use, I like that it's been around for awhile, that I have most of my posts here already.
I don't like that it has no trackbacks. So, I finally broke-down and installed Haloscan trackbacks, after too much work to install it. Not a really easy way to to do it, unfortunately. And, I think it slows down my blog loading time.
But, the masses (okay, Neville) called for trackbacks....
Thoughts on "communications, marketing, public relations and social media."
I know you said you like Blogger for the ease-of-use but now that your blog has grown quite a bit and you're having to install third-party solutions such as Haloscan do you sometimes wish you had made a jump to TypePad or MT?
ReplyDeleteObviously one major issue now is that your URL is branded @blogspot.com
When I consult with businesses or select individuals I may start them on blogger for practice, but they will eventually launch their formal blog on TP or MT.
The biggest issue I have with Blogger is like you have experienced, soon you want to add more features that Blogger does not have.
Don't get me wrong, blogger is a great solution for many people and some businesses.
Granted that many bloggers that use TP and MT rely on third party services such as Blogroll. Or they have embedded code from Technorati, SiteMeter or Flickr.
With any 'outside' solution though you start to worry about reliability. I remember Neville was having some issues earlier this year with his Blogroll not appearing. I notice issues with some blog pages timing out becuase it can't download the java code for a Technorati profile.
So knowing what you know now, what platform would you choose?
I'm going to seem like a curmudgeon for saying this, but I'd still go with Blogger.
ReplyDeleteI have faith - maybe misplaced, but faith nonetheless - that the Google/Blogger people will get their act together and provide trackbacks. Just like they did with comments.
It's about time you installed Haloscan! I too use Blogger and it seems that's the only service that integrates with them. So many people have suggested moving to TypePad or MT, but as Robert Scoble says: "never change your URL."
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your spanking new trackbacks. As Neville points out, you have worthwhile content to link to so it's great you've given the blogoshphere the ability to connect.
ReplyDeleteI've just recently gone through the same exercise of installing Haloscan on my Blogger blog. I've been test blogging on a personal blog before setting up a business blog and have been pondering the Blogger vs. TP or MT question myself. Thanks for sharing your experience.
One of the main reasons I kicked Blogger to the curb was its lack of commenting (at the time), trackbacks, etc. As a stop-gap measure I'd coded commenting into the functionality of my blog, using Blogger as the main CMS for my site but it didn't take long for things to start falling apart: first came broken links for every link to my site from a Google search, then came the massive numbers of (Blogger-based) spam blogs linking to me, and finally the whole thing fell apart when the Blogger did a major overhaul and introduced their own commenting system.
ReplyDeleteAll of that added-up to be a source of major frustration but, in all honesty, the most important reason I see for ditching Blogger (or Typepad or any other "free" blogging system) is control. First, you are at the mercy of the people managing your blog's backend and it's up to them whether you get commenting, trackbacks, Atom or RSS feeds, etc. Secondly, if the system breaks for any reason, you don't have many options for getting the problem resolved other than contacting "support" and then praying they'll help you out. And third: have any of you read the Blogger, Orkut, Gmail, or any other Google-owned sub-site's EULA? I can't say that I have myself but, if you're using Google's servers, they're paying for the bandwidth, and have to hire a staff of people to maintain and update the whole (free) system, who will have more rights to the "control" of that system?
I wouldn't blame Google for stipulating that anything posted via their system(s) becomes their "property" or, more precisely, Google retains the rights to take anything they find in content housed on their servers, and capitalize on those "things" however they see fit. Maybe it's a random idea tossed out in a Google Groups forum, maybe it's some snippet of code posted on a Blogger blog, or maybe it's a full thread discussing certain marketing or PR ideas in an Orkut Forum - Google would be dumb NOT to productize and capitalize on amorphous ideas, especially the trademarkable, patentable type! Besides, if there's any legallity issues that arise from such actions, it'll be side-stepped by Google constantly keeping everything in "Beta"...
So, regardless of what anyone tells you about what's lacking on your site in terms of functionality, I'd look at the bigger picture and make sure YOU are in control of your content since it'll be easier to regain control now versus when it's all locked-up in Gmail, Google Groups, Blogger, Orkut, etc.
Good to see the trackbacks... though I know the Haloscan solution is clunky, I found that adding trackbacks to my Blogspot blog made it far more useful for me and readers.
ReplyDeleteI switched to Typepad in January, though & wish I had started there. More features, easier to work with. And not, come down to it, expensive.
But I'll keep reading you wherever you post. Love the Face2Face series.
Trackback is a good idea. I change the email protocl according to Trackback. I make the email more safe.
ReplyDeleteBlogger should have trackback. Cause the trackback will be a basic application for internet. Also for openid.
The Google Applications of Sitebases Protocol