I have been blogging for a long time, even before there were any blogging services to help out with the process. I used to edit a text file that automatically loaded into my home page in an early proto-blog experiment.
When Blogger.com came along, I took too it immediately. It simplified things a lot and really allowed me to get a constant stream of content on my site. Back in those days, I took advantage of the FTP publishing side of Blogger which allowed me to publish static pages directly to my own web server, instead of hosting the blog at a Blogspot.com URL. I really liked this. It meant my blog was available even if Blogger was down, and it also meant I had my own copy of all my blog pages.
While I now create any new blogs using WordPress software, I still had 3 blogs using Blogger. Last week, though, I saw the end to my Blogger days. Google, who now owns Blogger, is doing away with FTP publishing entirely. One, My Word with Douglas E. Welch has already moved and A Gardener’s Notebook is next. I have decided to abandon the TechnologyIQ blog, as I haven’t been keeping up with it as I once did.
Blogger is providing a migration path for those using FTP publishing. You can move your blog to Blogspot using either a Blogspot URL or your own custom domain. Preliminary info is available in this document from Blogger — Important Note to FTP Users.
If you are using Blogger, you might be considering, or needing, to make a change. I highly recommend WordPress, both in its Blogspot-like hosted mode at WordPress.com and in the self-hosted version of WordPress available for install or download from your ISP or directly from WordPress.org.
All things move forward. Blogger is focusing on the ease-of-use of hosted blogs, which is fine. You just might need to seek out other alternatives. If you are looking for advice on transitioning to WordPress.com or a self-hosted WordPress install, you can ask questions here using the Comments link below or in the forums on the New Media Interchange Community Site. I would be happy to answer any questions I can and sharing those questions with others would be a great way of getting more information out into the world.