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.
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  1. 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 thread ]

  2. 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 thread ]

  3. 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 thread ]

  4. 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 thread ]

  5. 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 thread ]


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