If you haven't heard already, you will.
Dan Gillmor reports that Google is buying Pyra, aka Blogger and Blogspot. There are already differeing opinions on what the news means, and what it will mean to blogging. Shelley says she's glad she's an MT user--if I understand her right, Shelley sees the development as, maybe, a move by Google to centralize data, or maybe she means voice? She writes: "Seems to me that Google is centralizing the data in addition to centralizing the data search." I don't think so.
A one-stop-shop for voice? Maybe. Weighing search results in favor of the common-voice news and opinion and entertainment offered by us bloggers (as opposed to big media)? I hope so! Google already does this--they've been doing it for at least a year. God bless them.
Anil Dash speaks for me in what he writes: "Congrats to Ev and the gang for pulling it off, and for broadening Google's vision. It'll be interesting to note what effect it has on Blogger's reliability and scalability."
Personally, I am thrilled for Ev and team who, in blogger, created for me the most important killer app of my lifetime. I'm thrilled for me, because it won't be long before I don't have to launch into an impossible-to-do-justice-to conversation and a "here's what I mean by 'blogging'" email, everytime a colleage asks me what's the big deal about blogging. Google just made us all 20 times more legit. Finally, we may all be able to stop talking so much about blogging and really focus on voice and content.
Ev, in case you read this post, this is the spot where I give you a very genuine and personal thank you. Blogger has changed the way I live, think, breathe; it's changed every part of my world as my husband and daughter have come online with me. It's changed my world as blogging friends have become realworld friends. Like Google, Blogger has been an incredible conduit for expanding my universe, for igniting my brain cells after a long spell of dormancy.
And that Ev made it available for free, to anyone within reach of a browser, puts him on par with Thomas Edison in my book. Congratulations to all involved--I can't wait to see what happens next.
