10 July 2007

WordPress versus Blogger

A few months ago it seemed that half the blogs in my blogroll were switching from Blogger to WordPress.

I could understand why, because when I switched to the much-hyped Blogger Beta, lots of features no longer worked. Nine months after it was announced that the "new" Blogger was introduced, and that it was now "fully-featured", most of the features that didn't work in the Beta version still don't work, and a few more have got broken along the way.

As a result of that, I started an experimental WordPress blog, called Khanya, back in February, and now for the first time, it has passed this blog in the number of people reading it in a day.

Yesterday Khanya had 64 readers, and Notes from Underground had 47. Khanya was ranked 145 on Amatomu, while Notes from Underground was 167. That may just be a temporary thing, of course -- Notes from Underground still has far more links to it from other blogs (according to Technorati), and so perhaps it wouldn't be a good idea to move this blog to WordPress because it would break those links.

They also seem to have different sets of readers, according to StatCounter:

Khanya readers:



Num Perc. Country Name
drill down19743.20%United StatesUnited States
drill down14431.58%South AfricaSouth Africa
drill down337.24%United KingdomUnited Kingdom
drill down183.95%AustraliaAustralia
drill down143.07%NetherlandsNetherlands
drill down122.63%CanadaCanada
drill down71.54%PhilippinesPhilippines
drill down61.32%New ZealandNew Zealand
drill down51.10%MauritiusMauritius
drill down30.66%GreeceGreece
drill down20.44%CyprusCyprus
drill down20.44%Unknown-
drill down20.44%MalaysiaMalaysia
drill down20.44%FranceFrance
drill down10.22%FinlandFinland
drill down10.22%IcelandIceland
drill down10.22%NamibiaNamibia
drill down10.22%SpainSpain
drill down10.22%AlbaniaAlbania
drill down10.22%RomaniaRomania
drill down10.22%SurinameSuriname
drill down10.22%ChileChile
drill down10.22%TurkeyTurkey

Notes from Underground readers:



Num Perc. Country Name
drill down15733.76%South AfricaSouth Africa
drill down15032.26%United StatesUnited States
drill down398.39%CanadaCanada
drill down265.59%United KingdomUnited Kingdom
drill down122.58%ThailandThailand
drill down112.37%GermanyGermany
drill down91.94%AustraliaAustralia
drill down71.51%FranceFrance
drill down71.51%IndiaIndia
drill down51.08%NetherlandsNetherlands
drill down40.86%PhilippinesPhilippines
drill down40.86%MauritiusMauritius
drill down30.65%BarbadosBarbados
drill down30.65%MalaysiaMalaysia
drill down30.65%Unknown-
drill down30.65%GreeceGreece
drill down20.43%SwitzerlandSwitzerland
drill down20.43%AustriaAustria
drill down20.43%Russian FederationRussian Federation
drill down10.22%SurinameSuriname
drill down10.22%Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
drill down10.22%TogoTogo
drill down10.22%PolandPoland
drill down10.22%SloveniaSlovenia
drill down10.22%LebanonLebanon
drill down10.22%AlgeriaAlgeria
drill down10.22%HungaryHungary
drill down10.22%MexicoMexico
drill down10.22%ChileChile
drill down10.22%United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates
drill down10.22%ArgentinaArgentina
drill down10.22%MaltaMalta
drill down10.22%New ZealandNew Zealand
drill down10.22%NigeriaNigeria
drill down10.22%IrelandIreland


So perhaps the time has come to move this blog to WordPress, as so many others have done.

I'm still not sure though. Most of the features of Blogger that no longer work were never part of WordPress anyway. And the Blogger template is still easier to edit than WordPress.

Blogger features I miss most:

1. Blog this!
2. Search all blogs
3. Click on interests, books, movies in user profile to find those with similar interests

Annoyances:

When you're at the Dashboard, you can click "Dashboard" to get there when you're already there, but when yuou're at the blog, you have to click "Customise" to get a place where you can click to get to the Dashboard. This not only wastes time, it wastes bandwidth, having to load another page unnecessarily.

When you click "Link to this post", the "Edit HTML" no longer works -- you have to save the page and then edit it, loading two more pages in the process -- wasing more time and bandwidth.

So I'm still in two minds about whether to switch. Perhaps when the next thing breaks in Blogger.

6 comments:

Sam Charles Norton said...

I have my Blogger Dashboard page saved on my Bookmarks, so I can click directly to it, and not have to navigate there.

I'll try and write something about Wittgesntein and pain before too long - one of those issues that doesn't have a swift answer!

seev said...

Interesting comments on the differences between Blogger and Wordpress. I find Wordpress harder to use but I wouldn't think of switching, especially since I probably wouldn't know how to accomplish it.

Interesting comment, rev sam, on Wittgenstein and pain. I'd be interested in reading that when you get it posted. On your blog? Thanks for information.

Steve Hayes said...

Rev Sam,

Yes, I suppose one could bookmark it -- but why can't they simply put the "Customise" option on the Dashboard page, and the "Dashboard" option on the main page, where it would be some use?

Seev,

Yes, WordPress is a bit harder to use, though at least it uses proper HTML for posting, instead of all that "Span" nonsense.

Ecgbert said...

One thing I hate about Wordpress is it won't let you preview comments before posting them.

You can use proper HTML in Blogger; in fact Blogger uses it automatically in Internet Explorer. The 'span' nonsense is peculiar to Firefox.

Steve Hayes said...

Young fogey,

Another thing is that Blogger handles graphics more easily, as, for example the liberal quiz on your blog: A conservative blog for peace and on my WordPress one. Not to mention the statistic quoted in the main post, which WordPress simply doesn't display.

I still wish they'd fix the bugs in Blogger, though!

seev said...

Young fogey, there is a plugin you can use in Wordpress to preview comments before you submit them. Here's the link to it: http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/comments-preview/

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