2008 must be the year for people to start blogging. I have been approached by a few people since the calendar flipped to the new year asking my opinion on where to start their “blog”. I think it says a lot that people have finally decided the technology behind a blogging engine could really be used for many things other than teen diaries, pictures of cats, conspiracy theories or technology news.
Let’s assume that what you are doing is NOT for work purposes. (If it were we would steer you towards some of the internal products we train and support.) I have experience with 3 or 4 different platforms and have researched a few of the other contenders. Based upon that, my personal recommendations for a free blogging host would be:
WordPress: Best overall blog engine, most features. Privacy options. Active developers, support. Has static pages as well as blog pages.
Blogger: Owned by Google, uses your existing Google account. Not as customizable as others. Huge user base. Lots of plug-ins.
Tumblr: Simple, elegant, best for linking to content elsewhere (reblogging). No commenting. Fairly new, no track record.
Other online services I recommend in 2008 (if you are not already using them):
