Blogger Pro Goes Free

from the welcome-to-the-world-of-free dept

While other sites and services are looking for more ways to build walled gardens, block people off and charge extra, it appears that Google-owned Blogger is going in the other direction. Admitting that offering a paid-for Blogger Pro version was simply a matter of survival, they've now opened up all Blogger features for free and will continue to make money from other sources. As a competitive move, this seems pretty smart. It will be interesting to see how the other blog platform providers respond. Those who have already paid can get a prorated refund or a Blogger sweatshirt.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Sep 2003 @ 2:40pm

    Diary of a Googlist

    Recently TheSmokingGun was able to dredge up all kinds of posts from people that used UseNet ( owned by Google ironically ) who are or are going to be on the next Survivor series.

    ( See the link )
    http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/hastiemain1.html

    Perhaps this is one of the reasons Google is offering blogging free. When Google effectively owns complete diary's of people's lives, it will be a windfall for them to sell data about infamous people to news agencies.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Kyle Maxwell, 10 Sep 2003 @ 4:28pm

      Re: Diary of a Googlist

      This is just so wrong I had to say something.

      Google does not own USENET; they bought an archive of the traffic on it from DejaNews. That's like saying Google "owns" the web. They cache and index it, that's it. And anyone who thinks Google is planning to sell data about individuals, "infamous" or otherwise, is not familiar with Google's history or don't-be-evil philosophy.

      Judge for yourselves, and let the trolls go back under their bridges.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        AMetamorphosis, 10 Sep 2003 @ 6:42pm

        Re: Diary of a Googlist

        I'm so very impressed.
        I may not have had every subtle nuance and correct language, but you are a truely knowledgeable person.
        Regardless, a quick little " clicky " on the link above and you explain to me how The Smoking Gun got their information ?
        Quote from website: " Sent from Hastie's college e-mail addresses, the messages are part of the Usenet archive that has been maintained since 1995 (first by Deja.com and now by Google). "

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 10 Sep 2003 @ 8:27pm

          Re: Diary of a Googlist

          > [...] the Usenet archive that has been maintained since 1995 [...]< br>
          Actually, it goes back a little farther than that... I've found stuff in there from the late 1980s... more specifically, *my* stuff.

          I also didn't find some of *my* stuf prior to ~1988. So, they do indeed have only a partial archive of USENET.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            AMetamorphosis, 11 Sep 2003 @ 6:14am

            Re: Diary of a Googlist

            Funny, I've found a lot of my junk too from the pastunder different screen names. I do believe in some sense we are selling our thoughts and ramblings / writings without any thought to copyright law ... ( grin )

            link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.