8 replies to this topic

[kmtell]

http://news.com.com/...html?tag=fd_top

snippet: Google-owned Web log-creation site Blogger is eliminating its paid version and folding premium functions into its free service, bucking a trend toward making people pay for Web site extras.

[Scottie]

Go Google and Blogger!

I don't exactly know what the premium services are, but I'm going to check them out.

[Scottie]

Whoo hoo!

I can now change the date/time stamp on my entries!

Time to catch up on my backlog. Very cool!

[Scottie]

Very cool- now I can upload a file via Blogger instead of having to use my FTP program. That makes it much easier to add images. Very nice.

[Jill]

Wow, really!? I've been waiting for them to allow people to sign up for their paid version again as it's been down for ages. Now I get it all for free? I can barely believe it. So what's the catch???

Jill

[projectphp]

So what's the catch???

Google's Contimued monopolisation of the internet At least, that's my www.google-watch.org conspiracy theory for today.

I mean, come on, No one gives anything away for free, there must be a conspiracy going on here. I reckon the CIA are letting these things be free so their spook friends at Google can get them faster access to all the bloggers habits due to Google's terrible privacy so they can track them all.

Ooops, gotta run, the Men In Black are after me.

[Thanol]

It could just be a good faith gesture.

Very cool. I might accually update my blog more just to try out the new free features.

[bobsledbob]

I mean, come on, No one gives anything away for free, there must be a conspiracy going on here.

Google is smart. They know they don't make money by selling subscription services. They make money on returning accurate search results performed against extraordinary amounts of data.

From a business perspective, it makes sense that they drop the membership fees, right? Because, then there's going to be more people using their blogging service, which creates more content for them to crawl, which creates more search results for them return.

Google is tapped out in finding data through their 'normal' means. They need to find ways to add more content to their database. Blogs are typically very topic specific and are usually written by (dare I say) experts on the topic. People with a passion for some topic are the kindof people google wants to index.

Google's terrible privacy

What terrible privacy are you talking about? Google is one of the few companies who don't require anything from you to use their service. You can be as much of an anonymous coward as you'd like and still use Google.

[Scottie]

Hey bobsledbob-

ProjectPHP's whole post there was a joke...

I agree, Google knows exactly what they are doing and ultimately it will benefit both themselves and their customers- they are good at that sort of thing.