BlogSpot and Google are one and the same. The plus with Google is only if you are using the other Google products, ie. Gmail, Picasa, etc. This also means you can perform analysis functions with Google Analyzer.

Wordpress is very flexible, and if you are interested in aesthetic qualities, both are very customizable through CSS.

For what you speak, a blog with more social function, Ning might very well be a better answer. It has worked quite well for The Intention Experiment.

We use blogger (BlogSpot) to reach out to our various Thrashers fans throughout the world, and are quickly becoming one of the foremost sites in regards to our team.

You will honestly have to envision what you hope to achieve, how you wish to expand it, and decide what resources you have available.

posted February 27, 2008

Why dont you try drupal? since drupal si blogging platform that could be used by multiple account. Wordpress is only for single account, and its not suitable if you want to build large social community website.

-Anjar Priandoyo-
http://securityprocedure.com

posted February 27, 2008

+1 Drupal. The biggest strengths of Drupal are the built-in multi-authoring support and nearly unlimited extensibility. Lots of blogging platforms will let you write your own blog. With Drupal, you can allow logged-in users to author their own blogs. You probably want to maintain some control over this, of course, so there are approval workflows if you want.

If you'd rather have your users do "regular" posts, they can do so, and comments can be opened up to anyone or restricted to logged-in users. Forums are a piece of cake - just enable the forums module and set up the forum categories.

I think that if you're after a blog site that's mainly just your personal canvas, then Drupal might be more than you need, but if you want to have the ability to reach out and grow a community with your site, then Drupal might be worth a look.

posted February 27, 2008

I have used the following: Blogspot, Wordpress, MovableType, and Drupal and I would highly recommend Blogpsot over any of the others. Blogspot is by far the easiest for adding images, video, etc. It also easily integrates with YouTube, Picasaweb, and social networking sites like Plaxo.

posted February 27, 2008

I say blogspot. Easiest to conform to your style and needs. :)

Links:

• http://emrysroberts.blogspot.com

posted February 27, 2008

I would definately recommend Blogspot for your needs. I find Blogspot is the most user friendly for granting other users permissions to post and managing that aspect.

I think that purely asthetically wordpress is superior but Blogspot beats it on functions and usability.

posted February 27, 2008

Hello Ehab,

Your true need is Social community platform, not only blogging platform. You need something which support multiple users subscriptions, alerts, Blogging, Forum application.

I suggest to install any open source CMS supporting community like Drupal. Many hosting provider like siteground, bluehost provides inbuilt open source CMS platforms with very cost effective hosting package.

Please let me know if you need any help.

Best wishes for your work.

Devendra Deshmukh

posted February 27, 2008

All the open source implementations are insecure. Drupal is an especially inelegant software implementation.

However, having now warned you of the dangers of using a chain saw to cut down trees, I return to your stated question - I'd go with whichever of the choices provides you with the functionality that you intend to use.

It sounds like you want to start a forum rather than a blog. I suggest PhpBB - it's open source and pretty configurable.

Whatever you choose, make sure to have someone with clue install and configure the application for you and update the software every time a new version comes out. Also change your passwords more than once every election cycle - annoys the hackers no end.

=;^)

posted February 27, 2008

Hi!

I use Wordpress and Drupal.

I installed both of them for less than 4 (four) minutes each.

Drupal has higher learning level and is more difficult to administrate.

Wordpress is number one (not only) for beginners.

Both sytems re Opne Source (costs NOTHING) and are very good for SEO (Search Engine Optimization; sökmotoroptimering on Swedish ;-)

I actually use Wordpress at many of "my" sites - the sites which I create and maintain for the customers.

Drupal example:
http://www.top10club.se

Wordpress example:
http://www.seowebmaster.se
http://www.velikden.net/
http://www.blogdollars.info/

Links:

• http://www.blogdollars.info/
• http://www.velikden.net/
• http://www.seowebmaster.se

posted February 28, 2008

I think the real question should be - how often do you access the blogs / social networks? are you addicted? I know I am. Butler Group have written some interesting articles on this subject and have published research on the very interesting way in which productivity at work may be reduced because of the 'lure of social networks':

"Last month, IT security and control firm Sophos, revealed the results of an interesting survey into the habits of corporate employees. In a poll of 500 Facebook users, Sophos asked the question: How often do you access or check Facebook from work? If the results of this survey are to be believed, then 1 in 7 Facebook members appear to be logged into the system all of the time – a worrying statistic for business managers."
Published 15 November 2007 - Butler Group OpinionWire

There's also a full report on The Future of Social Networking on their site and to all employees and employers alike it makes interesting reading!

PS I'm a facebook user myself. and yes - I log in from my work PC. I've also got a couple of blogs on Wordpress but I find it extremley tedious to keep up with them!

posted February 28, 2008

When I first dipped my toe into blogging back in 03 I figured that if one on favorite marketing mentors Seth Godin was using Typepad, I'd use Typepad.

5 years later I'm still very happy with it.

Yes it costs 14.95 a month but it's very easy to use, feature rich and I can create an unlimited amount of blogs.

Jay
jay@mypetfat.com

Links:

• http://www.typepad.com

posted February 28, 2008

I would go with wordpress if you want to keep as a blogging platform. Others have already mentioned fx. Drupal :-)

Wordpress is highly configurable and as you need for further features grows you can be sure there is a plugin that supports whatever you are looking for. Also the whole security aspect seems to be covered well be Wordpress with quick fixes if/when vulnerabilities are found.

After trying many other solutions I have now been administering 4 seperate blogs for friends and where I had expected to use a lot of time administering and updating wordpress I have found that it is not very time consuming.

Also the fact that wordpress has many dedicated users has meant that any problem - small or large - has either already been solved by someone or, when posted in the forum at wordpress.org - it has been answered within a few hours.

posted February 28, 2008

I use most of the blogs you've listed and agree with many answers here.

BlogSpot is pretty easy to get up and running quickly. You can change the look pretty easy as well.

Wordpress is obviously one of the most popular. A little more configuration time and not as easy to get your own design.

b2Evolution is another that hasn't really been mentioned. I use it and found it easy to setup. You can create multiple blogs under one interface/program.

Links:
www.earlb.com

posted February 28, 2008

The answer would be WordPress, but not the hosted one at Wordpress.com. Host a WordPress blog yourself on your own site/domain. Yahoo SB Hosting and Living Dot offer blog hosting for a low price. They also install the blog software for you.

Links:

• http://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/cms_wikis_eoffice.asp#blogsw

posted February 28, 2008

I will say just use wordpress...

posted February 28, 2008

Blogs, groups and forums - they all have different purposes Ehab, although granted, their purposes can cross all three types. My own personal favourites are: Wordpress for blogging, LInkedin for networking/groups and Yahoogroups for forums.

posted February 28, 2008

Hi Ehab,

For a simple blog, it's hard to beat WordPress. It's easy to install, easy to administer, there are tons of themes and tools and it has a reasonable footprint. Open source so no license cost.

If you want a forum where multiple people contribute consider phpBB. It's again very fast to set up and easy to maintain. The goal of a forum is to make it super easy for new folks to get engaged. phpBB does this.

I see others have suggested Drupal, and it's quite useful. If you believe that you will be having a lot of shared content, I would encourage you to check out Joomla as it is simple to configure and has a really usable content management system. Joomla is also open source software, like many of the fine recommendations made by your other respondents.

posted February 29, 2008

For multiple users/authors on multiple blogs/forums on the same managed platform, you should have a look at Community Server (Telligent).
It's ASP.NET and not OpenSource, but it's really worth a try...
Sincerely
DJM

Links:

• http://communityserver.org/Default.aspx

posted February 29, 2008

Good day Ehab,

Thank you for posting this question. Moreover, thanks for all the replies – they've been very helpful.

Best of continued success,

John S. Rajeski

Links:

• http://rajeski.com/

posted March 1, 2008

Hi Ehab,

the best type of blog is the one on YOUR WEBSITE. We always suggest having one blog and syndicating it throughout the WWW. This is the way we do it and the people always land on our website in the last instance. On this they can then obtain all the additional information about our products and what makes our concept more valuable than those of our competitors.

The backbone of our blog is with blogger.com which we syndicate throughout my several personal profiles on Facebook, MySpace, etc etc.

Hope I was able to help and feel free to call me if you need additional information.

All the best

Lars Hilse
CEO
Insurancemerchant spec corp./indust. risks
(Chamber of industry and commerce-examined)
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M +49 (0)173 5433491
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posted March 2, 2008

I have always used wordpress for blog sites, however recently I have been exploring uses for Ning, and must say I am loving it.

posted March 3, 2008

Ehab,

It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish, and the nature of the group you wish to interact with. I wasn't able to determine from your question whether the announcements, newsletters and other information you'd like to manage would be for a hand-selected group of people you already know or the general public, or whether you wish your forum to be public or private. The level of control you'd like to have over readership and membership as well as the familiarity of your group with blogging or forum type software will likely dictate your choice.

Why not take a short poll of your target group? Ask them which kind of forum they would most likely wish to interact with you in. That might help narrow your choices.

posted March 4, 2008

Ehab, if you have already familiar with wordpress platform, why don't you try wordpress multi-user version. It enables us to running many blogs on single installation.

Links:

• http://mu.wordpress.org
• http://www.lemonde.fr/web/blogs/0,39-0,48-0,0.html
• http://mashable.com/2008/03/04/buddypress-automattic/

posted March 5, 2008