"Madame, bear in mind That princes govern all things--save the wind." -Victor Hugo, The Infanta's Rose

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Blogger Beta Blues

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday! The good news in Bloggerville is that April finally had her baby, and although little Aiden has had some initial complications, he's going to be OK and ready to go home soon. Please join me in wishing congratulations to the new Mom and Dad.

On a different subject, I'm seeing a lot more pressure to switch over to the new version of Blogger (formerly known as Blogger Beta). I'm a version 2.0 holdout; I'm comfortable with what I have now, and except for the post category tags -- which I do like -- I have no compelling desire to migrate to what's being called Blogger 3.0 now that it's officially "out of Beta". A while back I created a test beta blog so that I could play with the new features and see if I liked it, and I can't say they knocked me out. I've also been seeing lots of horror stories about blogs being corrupted during the conversion process, posts and comments being lost, templates that don't work, and other serious glitches. I've been writing this blog for over a year now, and I would really hate for it to get screwed up. Those with WordPress blogs have also reported major problems trying to import posts from Blogger Beta, and the more cynical side of my mind wonders if this might be a deliberate stealth tactic to discourage people from abandoning the Blogger platform for WordPress.

Then there's the matter of the mandatory Google account required for the new version. I respect Google's corporate motto of "do no evil", and I think they honestly believe that slogan represents not just good ethics but good business. However, the more Google expands beyond their search engine roots into somewhat creepy territory like pay-for-placement, selling data mined from users, etc., the more nervous I get about them. God forbid that Google should become the "new Microsoft", but there are a growing number of folks who are concerned that the company is starting to get just a little too greedy for their (and our) own good. Google's recent agreement with the government of China has also worried free-speech activists who feel that by capitulating to censorship, the company sold itself out in favor of potentially huge profits in that fast-expanding market. (For more on this, read this NYT article or this story from CNet.) Whether or not I personally sign up for a Google account has very little relevance to these matters in the long term, but I would still prefer that it wasn't necessary for me to do so just to keep the blog.

But I may not have a choice much longer. The hype to switch over is becoming less and less subtle ("Your New Version of Blogger is Ready!!"), and I suspect it's only a matter of time before it becomes mandatory. What about you? Have you switched yet or are you a holdout too? If you're using the new version, what do you like or dislike about it? Thanks for your comments.

5 Comments:

  • At 12/28/2006 05:09:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    there have been some issues but overall i love beta blogger. it is a lot easier to do just about everything. come on...dive in. what you can do is start a new blog from scratch and just put a link from here to your new one.

     
  • At 12/28/2006 08:15:00 PM, Blogger April said…

    I don't like change, and I'm scared of the new Blogger so I've been holding out until they make me change. I never even thought of making a test blog to see how I like the new version. Thats a good idea. My mom switched over, and she likes it very much. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Thanks for the shout out. I know I have the most beautiful child in the universe, but if people insist on telling me over and over, I guess thats just something I'll have to deal with :)

     
  • At 12/29/2006 09:57:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I switched and I don't like it one bit. If I don't login before leaving a comment on someone's blog, the comment will not post. I will be rerouted back to my login where I will have to login. Half the time, it doesn't work correctly. The screen will freeze and I will have to close out explorer. When I get back to Blogger, I normally select Old Blogger and try loging in that. I will be rerouted again to a different page where I just have to enter my password and that normally works. I usually go through this every time I get on blogger.

    BTW: Did you get my email?


    __________
    Yes I did ... thanks! Very funny.

     
  • At 12/30/2006 09:18:00 AM, Blogger Sphincter said…

    I'm a holdout, too. Mostly because I'm too lazy to explore new options at this time.

    Way to go, April! I'm headed to your blog next.

     
  • At 1/03/2007 03:06:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I like it okay. I lost all my comments on Haloscan and that pisses me off, but that could be Haloscan's problem. I also lost a bunch of my links, but it does look like it'll be easy to add features.

     

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