Google is saying goodbye to Blogger. OK, kind of. It will be morphing into Google Blogs as Google tries to connect everything with Google +. Read the Mashable article by Ben Parr titled “EXCLUSIVE: Google to Retire Blogger and Picasa Brands in Google + Push”.
So fellow WordPressers, do you think Google will revamp their blogging product in such a way that it can become competitive with WordPress again or has their time come and gone? Would you even consider moving back to a Google run blog template if they made great improvements?
the archives near Emmaus 
I’d never go back! EVER!
I don’t think that Google can win me back either. It would take (1) a very successful launch of Google + to the extent that it would put Facebook and/or Twitter on their heals; (2) a totally revamped interface with brand new functions that WordPress couldn’t match; (3) and time wherein I would give WP the chance to match. I don’t see these three things falling in place.
New functions that WP can’t match?! The only thing that WP has on Blogger anymore is a powerful comment management system integrated into its platform — as for everything else, it is found wanting. Especially re: the whole ad thing. I’m ready to be wooed back!
Nope. I started with Blogger, but found it so terribly frustrating that I wanted to give up on writing altogether. But then God smiled from heaven, shone His light on this wonderful website called WordPress.com, and then the rest is history…
Okay, the whole divine-intervention part might not be true, but you get the idea 🙂
If Google could offer a quality blogging platform, on the level of most of their other products, I might be tempted. But it would have to be very good. And I can’t really see them offering the flexibility of self-hosted WordPress.
I do all things Google, so if they improved the commenting system (so people didn’t have to sign up with something like a Google account to comment) I could be persuaded. I love WordPress for it’s commenting capability, but I’ve found it certainly has it’s limitations on fonts, control of templates, etc.
But I use so many Google platforms, integrating their new Google blog if they improve commenting wouldn’t be out of the question for me. (They would also need to make it as easy to track stats as WordPress.) But having established WordPress and being able to track things so well, I’d have to be WOWED into coming back.
I’m a blogger user currently just because I’m too busy to look into the alternatives (or even blog anywhere near as often as I like). I like Google+ quite a bit more than facebook. If they put the same energy into their new blogging platform it could give you just what you’re looking for.
Esteban: I felt like WordPress was a bit smoother in the interface and it gave more templates. I’d need to see at least those two things change in the new Google Blogs to be interested.
Jeremy: You’re like the Saul of Tarsus of Blogging.
Peter: The self-host aspect isn’t too big a deal since I use the generic WordPress.com.
Dan: Integration with other Google products would be another temptation.
Marcus: I’ve been wanting to get into Google +, but no success as of yet. It would be nice to explore so I can see where they are going. Thus far their history with social media has not done so well.
Yeah I hope they open up Google+ to a wider audience soon. It’d be nice to have gmail/google+/my blog all integrated – that alone is like 70% of my internet usage (excluding netflix), and that seems to be what they’re shooting for as they also want to eventually popularize a browser (chrome) based OS. Google+ isn’t only aiming at facebook. I think it’s also aiming down the road at Microsoft.
Marcus: I wouldn’t be surprised if that is so. Microsoft is prime for take-down. That being said, Google must succeed at Google +. If it goes the way of Wave they may be out of the game.
The blog roll on blogger currently has an option to have the blogs ordered by last updated. I’ve not seen that on WordPress….. yet.
Fundamentally though there’s nothing that google can do on their blogging platform that wordpress can’t do as well or better.