However, I was smitten and immediately created my first blog – coalface – and occasionally blogged. The features looked great and I enjoyed passing comment and I definitely got a few calls and had a few chats about blogging. But as you will see, it did not really enthuse me.

It took another series of events for me to move on. This post is not about that, this is about the technology. I really like Blogger, but I have been inspired to choose WordPress for a couple of reasons. I can host it – and all the software – it seems on my own server.

It seems that there are a lot of third party free and paid for updates, themes, plugins and all sorts of useful gizmos that I think would be really helpful in customizing the blog, whereas I feel rather limited to the Blogger.com varieties and services. I have tried Drupal and Joomla and I love them both, although I have more sites out there in Joomla than Drupal.

In addition and for me, most importantly, as it sits on my own server (albeit like Joomla and Drupal), I can use a real domain, granted I can do that with Blogger.com. But somehow, the very fact that there is a free ware version of WordPress somehow sets me free and I feel freshly invigorated in the world of blogging. WordPress is so much lighter than Joomla and Drupal, less clunky, more to my point.

I suppose in truth it was the reasons described in my last post – Your World View – that has really motivated me to really get into writing a blog, indeed a series of blogs.

Back to the Browser ware. Of course this is a mis nomer, but it is a phrase I like as it seems less clumsy to the term blogger ware or blog software, which is what I am referring to in the headline.

I have become a fan of WordPress because I have already been able to edit the template and it still works. In minutes I was able to work out how to glue some other applications into the software and use it as the basis for a system to build more sites, and this is important, as at the current count I run just under 1000 and that does not include client and partner sites. And yes, I need to build more. I would also be the first to admit that my designs are not the best in the world – I just do not have the time – and WordPress offers a wide variety of those too (like Joomla and Drupal).

So in summary, I reckon that it is possible to take full advantage of the latest 2.7 versions of WordPress blogging software and modify it for a range of uses. My intentions are not pure, some of my applications step away from traditional blogs but I am looking to include all the essential features.

I am also excited by the increasing array of widgets that I will be able to easily and quickly plug into the WordPress framework. This includes writing my own code and applications. You could say that I am indeed impressed by the rewrite and the dramatic reduction in legacy code, leaving the emphasis on providing spaces for future code additions.

To me it is this flexibility that makes WordPress the most powerful solution. So that is not to say that Blogger.com is not useful, it is just that WordPress is more flexible. My top tip has to be to go with the solution that is the most flexible – always!

So if you follow this top tip, I hope you enjoy Blogger.com as I have done and further enjoy WordPress as soon as possible. As given the option I expect for new web and blog projects for the forseable to employ WordPress 2.7 in more projects – I am convinced, I am a convert. Lets hope it all works out! It certainly seems like a good place to start and there does appear to be a lot of support for the new version…