As a long time user of Blogger, I've been accustomed to its many features that I've often taken for granted. I knew there were limitations, such as the lack of trackback features and categories, dull-looking templates, and the difficulties in formatting content especially when images are involved. I've never really thought of moving to another blogging platform though I've played around with Wordpress, Typepad and Live Journal. I know I won't be able to get around moving content from the old blogs to the new platforms - it's too much of a pain and furthermore, readers are still pointing to the old blogger URLs, some of which point to custom domains. In this post, I'll examine the differences in functionality between Blogger and Typepad:
Cost: First of all, Blogger is free while Typepad is a paid service. With a paid service, you'll obviously expect better features. Indeed, Typepad appears to be easier to use (for its wealth of features) and addresses many of the limitations of Blogger. For $4.95 a month, you get to have one blog, integration with Facebook and podcast support, among other features. For more dough, you'll get to host more blogs, gain access to advanced templates and map your blog to a your own domain - though I feel this should be a standard feature for all Typepad users. Free services like Wordpress and Blogger allow their users to do it for nothing.
User stats: A key strength of Typepad is that it puts together a nice package of tools you need to run your blog. This includes the important user statistics on your site/feed traffic, so you know if you're doing the right thing to sustain interest among your audience. On blogger, I had to rely on third-party services like Ice Rocket to get this information. Typepad also sets you up with Feed Burner easily to monitor the health of your feeds.
Built-in spam filter: I get spam from people on Blogger every now and then. It doesn't happen that regularly but it's still irritating to hear from people promoting their products. I don't moderate comments (and I never will) because I think it's anathema to open participation. I know there are some people who moderate comments that go against their views and I think this is offensive to your audience. Unlike Typepad, Blogger doesn't offer a spam filter which will help to keep your blogs open while keeping the spam problem in check.
Trackback: I've never really implemented trackbacks on my Blogger blogs because it isn't supported. I know there are third-party tools out there, but it requires quite a bit of configuration work. Because trackbacks allow you to inform people whose posts you've referenced and vice-versa, it helps to connect you with others who share similar ideas and interests, and keeps the community going! After all, we all like to read what others have said about our posts and trackbacks helps you to keep track of that.
Image options: It's much easier to format your blog posts in Typepad especially when images are involved. You can choose text wrapping around your images, define their sizes and choose to open images in a pop-up window. Blogger does none of these. To place images on the left and text on the right, for example, I often have to hard code the formatting myself using div and table tags.
Integration with Facebook: This is a godsend! Typepad lets you send feeds to Facebook profiles to publicize blog posts based on Facebook's controversial Beacon feature. Currently, I do this through a third-party Facebook app called Flog Blog which pulls the RSS feeds of my blogs and displays the first paragraph of my posts on my profile. Blogger doesn't help you to do this at all.
Templates: One of the pluses of Typepad is its beautifully designed templates. And there are new templates coming up regularly. Blogger only has a handful of them, and to ensure that my blogs don't look plain old vanilla, I find myself scouting for templates all the time. That means more time spent coding and reinstalling widgets.
There are other differences I haven't touched on, such as mobile blogging and search engine optimization in Typepad, but in general, $4.95 a month is worth it if you want to run a blog that's easy to maintain, looks good and well-oiled.
Most big libraries today have dipped their toes into the water with several "Library 2.0" initiatives such as the use of blogs, wikis, instant messaging, Facebook and so on. But I'm sure some librarians remain unconvinced of what this means to users. Are users necessarily welcoming libraries into their Facebook world? Do kids see libraries as adults intruding into their personal spaces?
Are users actively engaging in conversations with librarians and among themselves on library blogs? There are a few notable case studies out there, but by and large, its mostly one-way communication from librarians to users on many library blogs.
Wikis may be a good way to create next generation subject guides and pathfinders because they allow keyword searching and even semantic hyperlinking, but few library subject wikis have seen active community participation surrounding content creation. As Chad Boeninger, a reference librarian at Ohio University pointed out, users of his Biz Wiki prefer to leave content creation to him.
This doesn't mean libraries should stop exploring these Web 2.0 tools. I do see the value of what many Library 2.0 initiatives are trying to accomplish, but perhaps we could take a step back and examine why users aren't participating as much as we'd like in the first place. Perhaps libraries are not doing enough to invite participation?
