New found favor with Blogger

I've never been much of one to stick to blogging. I have started several times. I created a Yahoo! 360° blog because I already had a Yahoo email address. I posted once or twice.

I installed Mambo (which has now branched into a new product called Joomla) when I first started in the web business. Ok, technically this is a CMS (content management system). It had much more than just blog posting capabilities. It turns out it was more than I needed, too.

Later, I came across Wordpress when a client approached me who needed help with thier Wordpress site. Naturally, to learn more, I setup my own Wordpress installation. I worked with the templating system and managed to create a simple WP template. But I entered very few blog posts.

As I have been transitioning from the PHP language to the .NET world, I have become more familiar with the options there. One that I've come across several times is Community Server. Yep, you guessed it -- I installed it too. From a commercial standpoint, this package requires a purchased license. Community Server also has forums and allows multiple blogs per installation.

That brings me to today. I've known about Blogger for some time but have not tried it out. A positive attribute that I have just discovered about Blogger is the ability to upload a custom template. I thought you could only choose from a set of generally supplied templates. What this opens up is the ability for me to bring a website design and incorporate the same look into Blogger. Also, there is no license fee to use Blogger. You have the ability to enter posts through the web interface or third party desktop applications like Microsoft's Windows Live Writer. There is even a developer's API to allow a programmer to develop software to manage their blog from desktop applications or custom websites. I'll be diving into this soon.

Don't take this post as my recommending one blog solution over another. You would need to ask a true "blogger" to find a true review. I haven't used Blogger for long so I can't list many pros and cons. But I have a few ideas how I want to integrate this technology into some of my website designs.

Check back with my blog. This is my first post and hopefully there will be more to come. :)