khaihiok's blog

This is an English version of Wordpress Rocks,
Click here if you want to see 中文版.

I've written Wordpress vs. Blogger a few days ago, and now I move again. It's kind of embarrassing that I have switched between BSPs more than once, especially between Wordpress and Blogger.

Several days ago, my sister and cousin asked me which BSP do I prefer, I recommended Blogger without doubt.
However, I've recently started using Wordpress again,
and I am in love with it now.

Reasons I Chose Wordpress:

1. Speed.
   Original Blogger blogs are faster but lack lots of widgets, like "Recent Posts," "Recent Comments," "Calendar," and so on.
   Widgets are usually added by JavaScripts, which decelerate the loading speed.


2. Recent Comments.
   At Blogger, I use this hack, but it often breaks down, only showing "Loading" or just blank.
   And it takes much time to read the hack while loading.
   At Wordpress, Recent Comments is built-in


3. Comment System.
   At Wordpress, it's more convenient that the comment block is just below the post. And you can leave comments without Wordpress ID.
   At Blogger, it pops to a new window, which I think ugly.


4. BSP team and its features.
   I used to apotheosized Google, regarding that it did a good job at Search, Gmail, Earth, Calendar, etc, then Blogger should also be great.
   But gradually I found, Google is good at each service, but bad at integration of its services.
   Besides, Google seems to dabble at every field to expand its enterprise, but each of the services inches on the road of improvement, especially Blogger.
   For example, few new templates are added and it takes a loooooooooong time to have Labels.
   It makes me feel that Google just bought Blogger, then, whatever.
   The greatest advantage of Blogger is that users are free to change or add anything, HTML, CSS, JavaScript...
   but these become nothing for people who do not familiar with the codes and languages,
   and the more widgets you add, the slower the speed of loading.

As to Wordpress, its greatest disadvantage is "no freedom to change the template," without paying, you can change nothing.
But I think its built-in widgets are enough.
Besides, Wordpress doesn't support JavaScript, please chick Javascript - can I use that on my blog? to see the reason.
But you may feel the diligence and ardor of Wordpress team after a period of time that there are many new templates and widgets released every month.

Above are the reasons I moved from Blogger to Wordpress.
Below are all features of Wordpress:

1. Tags, either Tags or Tag Cloud is available and you can use both


2. Calendar, you can choose which day is the first day of the week


3. Archive, either List or Drop-down menu is available


4. Posts and Pages can be protected by password


5. "Read More" for Posts and Pages


6. Post Slug, you can name your posts


7. You can edit the time of publishing


8. Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Top Posts, Top Clicks


9. Pages


10. Automatically save while posting


11. You can decide whether people can comment or not


12. If you commented at other Wordpress blogs, you can see your and further comments at your Dashboard


13. You can define the size of the post box, changing while posting is available


14. You can choose either "latest posts" or "static page" to display at the front page of your blog


15. You can decide who can read your blog


16. Detailed blog stats


17. Feed stats This function retired, please see the explanation


18. Navbar, displayed only when you are logged in


19. Spam comments are blocked automatically


20. Import & Export


21. More than one blog


22. More than one author


23. Dynamic community


24. Tag Surfer


25. Beautiful-designed templates, keep adding...


26. Drag-and-drop sidebar and it offers integration with other services, including: del.icio.us, Flickr, Meebo, Box.net, Platial MapKit, Sonific SongSpot, Vod:Pod

So, I decided to use Wordpress now, please change the link of my blog, http://khaihiok.wordpress.com,
also the rss feed, http://feeds.feedburner.com/khaihiok-wp.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
Hope you can give Wordpress a try,
it offers Import for you to import all posts and comments to Wordpress.

Note: What I mentioned at this post is Wordpress.com, not Wordpress.org.
(Wordpress.org is far better than Blogger and Wordpress.com that you may have lots of plugins and templates to choose. The disadvantages are: not free and you have to maintain the stability and safety by yourself.)

Reference
Features
Wordpress vs. Blogger