Blogger

Creator: Pyra (Evan Williams, Meg Hourihan, Matt Haughey, Paul Bausch)
Example: www.consolationchamps.com (James’s blog)

Blogger was the one that started it all. This is great for those who are not tech-savvy, since all the files reside on Blogger’s servers and you don’t have to write any HTML code. It’s also a great way to discover blogging since the service is free (it even offers free hosting). Blogger automatically publishes your blog, without your having to install any server software or scripts. You simply post to your blog through a form on the Blogger Web site. The post then shows up immediately on your Web site. If you want a few more bells and whistles, try Blogger Pro. But you have to pay for this one (currently $35/yr, but eventually will be $50/yr).

Greymatter

Creator: Noah Grey
Example: www.luminescent.org

Unlike Blogger, Greymatter is a set of files that are installed on your server (i.e., where your site is hosted). Currently at version 1.2.1C, Greymatter requires an FTP client, full support for Perl 5, and some knowledge of HTML (this is simply to help you customize the templates). This is another free program, but donations are welcome. Greymatter has lots of features, including a built-in comments system, search engine, and karma voting where visitors can rate your entries (however, you control which entries can be voted on).

Live Journal

Creator: Brad Fitzpatrick
Example: lizvang.livejournal.com

LiveJournal began as a free service to create and host online journals, but is included as a Weblogging tool as the line between journals and Weblogs has blurred. Unique among blogging tools, LiveJournal is an open source project, with contributions made by the members of its user community. You can update your journal using either a Web-based or downloadable client, and journal files reside on LiveJournal’s servers. LiveJournal’s users have created a very tight-knit community around this service.

Movable Type

Creator: Ben and Mena Trott
Example: www.blogwidow.com (Brooke’s blog)

Husband and wife team Ben and Mena Trott created Movable Type in Perl simply because they wanted more control over their Weblogs. With Movable Type, your files are stored on your Web hosting server. Among Movable Type’s cool features is the ability to assign multiple categories to blog entries, e.g. on my blog I do a Quote of the Week every Monday, so when I blog my quote I assign it the category, Quote of the Week. There’s also space for an excerpt of your blog entry, should you want to give your readers a preview of a longer piece. Additionally, you can pre-date or post-date entries, let your readers e-mail entries to their friends directly from your site, and import entries from other Weblogging systems. This last option could be important for people switching an existing blog to Movable Type. Requirements include an FTP client, Perl 5.004_04 on your Web host’s server, and the ability to run CGI scripts on your Web account. Currently at version 2.1, Movable Type is free for non-profit use, though donations are gladly accepted.

pMachine

Creator: Rick Ellis
Example: www.saucyspot.com/weblog.php

This blog program was written in PHP and runs on any server that has PHP 4 and MySQL installed. With the recent upgrade to version 2.0, pMachine has added 40 new features. Here are just a few:

1. Statistics—visitors to your site can see your stats, for example the number of comments, the number of entries, etc.

2. Collective Weblogs—by creating a collective Weblog, visitors to your site can submit entries, then other visitors can submit entries to those entries, and so on and so on.

3. Curse word censoring—pMachine can censor words contained in a “user-definable library.”

4. pBlocks—these can be used to store info that doesn’t change very often, like your Favorite Links or About You sections.

pMachine comes in two flavors. pMachine Free is, as you guessed, free for personal use. pMachine Pro, priced at $45, adds event calendars, multiple Weblogs, and XML parsing.

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Each of these tools will attract its share of fans, and the fact that all of them were developed by such small teams of programmers is encouraging. Each of these programs developed out of a need confronted by someone who was actively engaged in publishing to the Web. The programmers all have their own Weblogs, and this personal touch accounts for some of the fierce loyalty fans have toward each particular tool, which consists only of pages of code.

If you are interested in discovering the world of blogging, by all means try out some or all of these tools. Beginners would be wise to try one of the Web-based services first, and as their comfort level increases, migrate to one of the more customizable options. Remember to reward the creators by making a donation. And by all means, whichever tool you choose, make your blog your own.