INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITYSchool of Computer Science and Engineering

PROJECT REPORTCourse IT541 - E-COMMERCE

DATE: October 31, 2013TOPIC 2.3: Create-A-Blog

As of late 2011, both Blogger and Wordpress allow you to create easily a blog, free of charge. Visit both sites, as well as third-party reviews of both. Prepare a chart comparing the functionality offered by each. Which would you choose if you were to create a blog, and why?

Student Name: Tran Nguyen Quynh Tram, Student ID: MITM05020

1. IntroductionBy definition, blog is an informational site on Internet for discussion and includes separate entries

(called "posts") in reverse chronological order. A person, a small group often uses it to focus a single subject. Blog gives us an easy way to share our memory or thought as an online diary, even blog is brand of online advertising for company. There are many blog types such as personal blog, microblogging, corporate and organizational blogs, blog by genre, blog by media type, blog by device, reverse blog. Blogger (formerly known as Blogspot) and WordPress are two kings of the blogosphere. Google owns Blogger, and Automattic Inc. owns Wordpress. [1]

Figure 1 shows publishing trend with Blogger, Wordpress, drupal, joomla, sharepoint in 2011.

Figure 1: Publishing trend with Blogger, Wordpress, drupal, joomla, sharepoint in 2011 [3]

In 2011, the line of Wordpress and Blogger rose faster than Joomla, Sharepoint, and Drupal. Until now, both Blogger and Wordpress are the best free blogs with many special features. So, which is better for us? The report will give advantages and disadvantages of them.

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2. Detailsa. Blogger

Blogger is a web log system for individual or multiple users. Pyra Labs found it in 1999. In 2003, Google bought it. All features of Blogger became free for users. In 2004, Google was integrated Picasa and photo sharing utility to Blogger. In 2006, Blogger released a new version associated with Google services as well as adding some new features including label organization, flexible themes, Web feeds, etc.

Figure 2 shows wizard to create a blog:

Figure 2: Wizard to create a blog on Blogger [10]

Blogger has a template designer and simple navigator system to help creating a blog easily with a professional interface. Google services and software plugins support Blogger to send and edit a post easily. Especially, a user publishes directly in Blogger (using blogspot.com address) or posts to the user's domain or their server (or SFTP through FPT) [7].

Blogger also offers gadgets (widgets) which users can add to their blog. These gadgets are free and provide new functionalities such as Picasa Photostream (displaying and sharing images), Recent comment (Show recent comments), SocialVibe (paying and earning donations), etc. A blog on Blogger’s platform is very friendly and effective to search because it is a part of Google (the biggest search engine in the internet today) [8].

b. WordpressWordpress, a fork of b2/cafelog, is a free blog and a content management system. It runs on a

web hosting service supporting PHP and MySQL. The latest version of Wordpress is version 3.5.1 under GNU license [2].

Figure 3 shows that Wordpress has a plug-in architecture and a template system.

Figure 3: Text flow diagram of Wordpress [5]

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Worpress is not only to make blogs but also to help user everything from personal website to company website. More than 18.9% of the 10 million top sites use WordPress [2].

Figure 4 shows that 48% of the 100 most popular blogs in the world is currently using WordPress, increasing 16% compared to 2009. The rate of using Wordpress on individual host is 39% and on Wordpress.com is 9%.

Figure 4: Top 100 popular blogs [4]

Beside, Wordpress also allows integrating third-party applications which have good features such as Theme-Check (developing theme), Hotfix (providing unofficial fixes for selected WordPress bugs), Jetpack of wordpress.com, Akismet (taking away of comment spam), etc. [6]

c. Comparing Blogger and WordpressTable 1 shows that advantages and disadvantages between Blogger and Wordpress:

Blogger Wordpress

Adv

anta

ge

Investment costs is low Need to have a Gmail account to create

blogs Customize template, html, css, etc. to a

pro blog look relatively little. Store images on host free of Google Infinite about capacity and bandwidth Create a lot of blogs with just 1

account, focusing on management dashboard

Many templates for free Easily to connect on the same account

using Google+, Google Adwords

Install on separate hosts (self-hosted Wordpress)

Customize as wish Support SEO well A huge support from community Many free plugins to make a

professional website, to support SEO, to create sitemap, and to do statistics.

Unlimited about number of members on the blog

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Dis

adva

ntag

e

Default domain name is long and difficult to remember

If user posts or pictures violate the rules, Blogger.com can delete your blog without notice

Not good to support SEO only be a maximum of 20 label for

each article Maximum 100 members on per blog

High investment costs for hosting Install and create the initial database . Need have programming skills to be

able to edit the template Always pay attention to security issues High maintenance costs

Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages between Blogger and Wordpress [9]By comparison, Blogger and Wordpress have the strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the

intended usage, we will choose a suitable type. Some people prefer blogger to Wordpress because it is free and simple. Some people prefer Wordpress because a large amount of themes and plugins that it provides. If the user chooses to make the first blog, he should choose Blogger. But Blogger is just the beginning it was not what he will use forever. When he wants to grow his business to new heights, He will choose Wordpress.

3. ConclusionThe article shows the blogosphere has the rapid and diverse development. Each blog platform has its

own strengths. It is also suitable for each user sector. Depending on the demand and the skill level of information technology, the user can choose a suitable foundation to build blogs.

References[1]. wikipedia.org, Blog, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog[2]. wikipedia.org, WordPress, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress[3]. lorelle.files.wordpress.com, Chart-2011-google-trends-wordpress-cms-blog-publishing,

https://lorelle.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/chart-2011-google-trends-wordpress-cms-blog-publishing.jpg

[4]. royal.pingdom.com, WordPress completely dominates top 100 blogs, http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/04/11/wordpress-completely-dominates-top-100-blogs/

[5]. kangsunghyun.woweb.net, I Want To Blog, Where Do I Start And Why Should I Use WordPress, http://kangsunghyun.woweb.net/dpk/1313930

[6]. wordpress.com, The Features You’ll Love, http://en.wordpress.com/features/[7]. en.wikipedia.org, Blogger(Service), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogger_(service)[8]. blogger-gadgets.blogspot.com, Blogger Featured Gadgets,

http://blogger-gadgets.blogspot.com/[9]. pulsed.blogspot.com, Blogger vs WordPress vs Tumblr Comparison,

http://pulsed.blogspot.com/2007/07/blogger-wordpress-chart.html[10]. huongdanblog.com, Guidance to create a blog, http://www.huongdanblog.com/search/label/Blog

%20Blogspot

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