Blogging with Google's Blogger

Google currently has market dominance, and with their recent IPO they are flushed with cash. So what are they doing with all these resources? The Google home page doesn't indicate much of anything, but if you click on the "more >>" link, you're in for a treat. Behind that link are dozens of mini Google tools: Google News, Google Scholar, Google Catalogs and more. I'm going to provide a brief description of some of my favorite Google sub sites, but I'd encourage you to visit the site and explore other tools because they're adding news ones all the time.

Blogger - Blogger is perhaps the most popular of Google's sub sites. Blogs are a popular topic in the news these days. Blogs are basically online personal journals. Some blogs allow visitors to post comments to journal entries. Some blogs gain enough attention to become highly specialized news outlets. If you've read Malcom Gladwell's Tipping Point (which I recommend), you might remember one of his categories of people who heavily influence trends and fads... he called them "mavens." A maven is the kind of person who knows everything there is to know about a very specific subject. They can tell you exactly which DVD recorder to buy, when to buy it, what store has the best price, where to get the best rebate, and how to get 100 DVD recordable discs for free when you buy it. There are product mavens, political mavens, entertainment mavens, technology mavens, and they all love to blog! Of course, non-mavens also like to blog, and you can find blogs on almost any subject.

Blogger is Google's online tool that allows you to set up and maintain your own personal blog for free. It's easy to use, and you can add as many journal entries as you like. You can even pick and customize their various design options.   next >