Blog assignment #1
Find at least 5 sites where you can host a website or blog for free. You must provide the following information:
Website name
Describe the ease of setting us a website with this host.
Describe features that make setting up a website with this host easy or difficult.
Describe how this website compares to blogger.com.
Reminder:
* Posts are due by 5pm on Wednesdays.
18 comments:
First blog site:
www.wordpress.com
Accessibility: Easy to set up a blog and use it. It takes a user name, email address, and clicking on a link to set up a blog. There are many options like uploading pictures and music and creating polls that make this site versatile.
Compared to blogspot, this site is competitive. I haven't found a way, yet of changing the appearance of my blog. It is very easy to use, though.
Second Blog Site:
www.travelpod.com
Accessibility: This is very easy to set up a blog. There is one page of information to fill out, without an email verification. The unique feature is the ability to use a map to show where one has been. One is able to up-load pictures and music.
Compared to blogspot, this site is very easy. It is less ideal to a music educator, though, as it caters to travelers.
Third Blog site:
www.livejournal.com
Accessibility: This site is easy to begin. It involves filling out an survey of interests. This site also has the feature of linking with other people through. One can also call a number and leave a voice posting on their blog with this site.
Compared to blogger, this is very easy. I like the phone-in voice feature. The site caters to journalists, specifically, but it would be useful for anyone, including an educator.
Fourth Site:
www.weebly.com
Accessibility: This is the easiest site to set up a blog with. There are pop-ups pointing to the links and tabs in sequence to publish the blog. There is a video wich shows what one can do with a blog at weebly.
Compared to blog spot, there are as many features and is more visually appealing. It is easy to add a googlemap, youtube video, link to flikr photos and slideshows, and others. This is a great blog site for a beginner.
Fifth site:
thecutestblogontheblock.com
Accessibility:
This one is less easy to set up. It's not difficult, but it is overshadowed by other sites. There don't seem to be a lot of options about different uploads like music, pictures, etc.
Compared to Blogspot, this website is less accessible and has fewer options
1) Thoughts.com
Very simple to use. Tabs on the website allow easy use of videos, podcasts, polls, surveys, etc. It also displays popular tags used by all of the members, very twitter-esque. It offers more features than blogger , but I personally prefer the interface of blogger because it is simplistic.
2) www.wordpress.com
Very accessible, very basic. This is a minimalistic blogging website for mainly text posts. Very few layouts available. I know many bloggers who use wordpress and are very happy with its interface. Since I am a fan of simplicity, I prefer this website over blogspot, however blogger is better for music education purposes.
3) http://clearblogs.com
Accessible; it offers advertising-free blogs for a fee. The home screen does not offer any features such as pictures, videos, podcasts, anything. The interface has bubbles all over, which I find distracting and unnecessary. On my first impression, I am immediately turned off by this website. I would not recommend it to anyone, and much prefer blogger.com
4) insanejournal.com
This is definitely more difficult to use. The text, graphics, and interface make the website uncomfortable and difficult to navigate. Signing up for an account is a significantly longer process than simply a user name and a password. I would not recommend this website and definitely prefer blogger.com.
5) busythumbs.com
This website is designed specifically for phone updates, texts and pictures. This website is accessible and free. It surely had the most interesting sample blogs of any other website I visited. Still, the features on this website are designed for entertainment purposes, not for information purposes and certainly not for teaching. I prefer and recommend blogger.com.
1. www.bravenet.com/
http://mued325duggan.bravejournal.com/
There were two options to choose from as far as building your blog. The first, called Bravenet blog, a stand alone classic blog service that allows you to quickly and easily setup a web journal using pre-defined blog templates. The second option is the Viviti blog which is a Drag & Drop Blog Builder, combining a blog with a full website. I chose the classic Bravenet blog format. This was very easy to set up; just a few steps I was able to start blogging. A step was added in the registration process by Blackberry to try and get you to sign up for their newsletter that was a little annoying. The selection of templates was impressive and everything was self-explanatory, and the registration steps and template choices were similar to blogger.com.
2. www.yola.com/
http://mued325duggan.yolasite.com/
On Yola.com I set up a website. After registration with a name and email, there is an option to pay for a premium service where you pay for a larger choice of templates, but there were plenty of free ones to choose from. Adding content to your site is easy to do. There is a sidebar when creating your side that will allow you to add video, pictures and a list of extras found in the advanced settings function that is impressive. A free web address through Yola is offered with the site , so there is no domain name fee.
3. http://www.aeonity.com/
On aeonity.com there is a free blog hosting service. Registration is a little different than most. Your date if birth and time zone are required, as you will be asked if you observe daylight savings. There is also a feature called a custom field which allows users to show what their mood is when they published their blog. This is simple to set up, but once verification was established, I had a difficult time figuring out how to enter my first entry.
4. http://www.webs.com/
This site is great for beginners like me who want to create a web site. Registration is easy and similar to glogger.com registration. There are two steps in building your web site; the first option is to have webs.com help you build, and the second is to start with a blank page and construct it yourself. Webs.com will show you how to add pictures to your site as well as widgets(an element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box). There are different types of web sites that you can create that are divided into three categories: personal, Clubs & Groups, and Small Businesses. One feature that I thought was a real plus was the capability of multiple pages, in addition to your home page.
5. http://www.blogsome.com/
This site was the simplest of them all. Registration of a blog was under a minute and with out any choice of backgrouds . This site is simple to set up, but not very exciting with no page template options. Again, I think that it is a very easy registration process, similar to that of blogger .com., and it does allow HXTML language for more advanced bloggers.
While my knowledge of the tech world may be limited, I do understand the importance and benefits of blogging. As a teacher, I can only imagine how many uses a blog could have, especially with older children. A great blog could serve as a form of the Blackboard system that we use in college, where students could access assignments, recordings, images, etc. Since blogs have so much potential use (and because we are assigned to!), here's a look at the ease and usefulness of 5 free blog sites.
#1: wordpress.com
This site was quite impressive! It was very easy to sign up, choose a theme and get blogging! What I liked best about this site in comparison to blogger.com were the external links that appeared at the bottom of the dashboard, such as the hottest blogs of the day, a daily view tracker, and the fastest growing blogs.
#2: thoughts.com
This site at first glance wasn't very appealing. The set-up was pretty banal, and the color scheme was equally unappealing. It is also a highly inappropriate site, for the homepage lists random blogs, the first of which was 'my brother is a douchebag'...I don't think the parents of my students would approve of that!
#3: sosblog.com
This site was on par with blogger.com for sure. It was very easy to get right into the blog, and the layouts were visually appealing. This was probably the simplest yet to navigate, but doesn't have all of the features that blogger.com has.
#4: bloguni.com
Well, this blog gets an 'F' for usability, for it wouldn't let me create an account! From the features page and the home page, I could tell already that it was a lower grade blog site. It was visually unappealing and had very little to set it apart from the myriad of other sites.
#5: weebly.com
This blog was the winner for me! The interface is so unique compared to the other blog sites. You have a blank page to start, and an 'element' bar on top. You select an element, such as a text box, a picture, a column, and so on, and then drag it onto the blank page where you want it to be. This web site is simple, creative, and a lot of fun to work with!
Looking at these 5 blog sites has not only shown me how many options we as teachers have to blog, but how good blogger.com really is. While I liked weebly.com a lot, it is clear why we as a class use blogger.com.
1. www.wordpress.com
Through wordpress.com it is very easy to create a blog, requiring only an email address. Aside from just the "basic blog," they offer a multitude of additional features a blogger can use. They range from different page themes, a statistic system and widgets from Flickr, Meebo etc. They also offer an easy way to transfer a preexisting blog at a different site to wordpress.com. They do seem to offer a wider variety of "extras" then blogger.com and I liked how they presented information for potential users.
2. www.livejournal.com
Creating a "Live Journal" seems to be just as easy as the other two blog sites I have encountered thus far; the only requirement is a valid email address. The site offers a variety of ways to explore the site, through a cultural, entertainment, life, news/politics, music or technology standpoint. It does offer many of the fun widgets that blogger and wordpress offer, however I found this site a bit more confusing to navigate then the other two.
3. www.weebly.com
Initially, this site was interesting because it had more of professional appearance and advertised itself as a blog and personal website. It advertises that it's easy to use and good for the technically less savvy. In comparison to the other sites, an email address is all that's required to create an account. They offer media features, but once again with a much more professional air. When trying to find information about their accounts the website was straight forward and easy to use and read(images and font were big.)
4. www.thoughts.com
Just as with the other three, easy to create an account. This site does seem to offer many different features aside from the common networking and picture sharing. They have applications for podcasts, polls, surveys, news, etc. While thoughts.com does give the blogger many options, the site isn't not as professional looking and can be a bit busy compared to weebly and blogger.
5. www.bravenet.com
What is nice about this site is that it offers two different kinds of blogs, a more traditional one or one that functions as more of a website. An email address is the only this required to create an account, but this process is a bit longer then with some of the other sites. While offering many of the fun features that other blogs do, bravenet does seem to cater more towards professionals and businesses. Their site is easy to follow and has a very professional look. Compared to blogger, they do seem to offer more information before registering, and the layout is cleaner looking. However with the basic blog, both sites seem to offer very similar products.
1. Website name: Bravenet
Bravenet has a user friendly format in that it helps new users each step of the way with concise, easy to follow instructions. The aesthetic of bravenet is straightforward and easy to read. The Website Wizard feature helps inexperienced users build a website with pre-designed templates through a step-by-step tutorial. Advertisements that cycle through at the top of the browser were out of the way and unobtrusive. Blogger’s format was even easier to use because it has very little information on each page and reads like someone is talking to you directly. On each page, blogger leads you to make a decision, which encourages you to finish what you are doing rather than having too many choices. This is a good feature for those addicted to multitasking.
2. Website name: Weebly
Weebly gets you set up with an account on the very first page and then you are off to the races with designing. This site never lets go of your hand! It leads you through each step of the design process without letting you wander – at all. It has a great feel for the novice builder, which would be an annoyance to the experienced builder. Weebly offers over 35 design templates and also allows you to switch to html format if you are an advanced user. This site is intuitive in the sense that it allows the user to build their site like they would a Chipotle burrito – just take a look at the ingredients in front of you, drag and drop. Weebly is so easy to use – probably even easier than blogger. The end result is an easy to update attractive website. The blog feature on weebly seems to offer similar bells and whistles as blogger. This site would be easy to use in a classroom setting because it guides you through each step and students would be able to experiment easily with the drag and drop feature.
3. Website name: Webs
This site was very simple to set up. It only took a few pages and I was ready to get started. Webs has a few more steps than weebly, but still extremely easy and straightforward. The design format for Webs reminded me of a word document, an interface with which most users would feel very comfortable. It did not have the drag and drop feature, but with a little exploration of the toolbar would have you well on your way to designing an attractive website. The blog feature on webs was easy to use, but didn’t seem to offer as many options as blogger in regards to uploading files and managing accounts. It seemed more like a live feed feature.
4. Website name: Myownfreeweb
The set-up process for myownfreeweb was more challenging than bravenet, weebly and webs. The appearance of myownfreeweb seems to be less streamlined than others, with far too much information on the homepage. It offers too much information up front. You feel as though you need to read the fine print rather than just plug in your info and get right to your own design. The interface is too busy with what appears to be too much to learn in one sitting. It reminds me of a sit down restaurant that has an atmosphere that is very busy, the food is ok, and the service leaves a little to be desired. Blogger is much more user friendly because you don’t have to read anything to get started, you just click a few times and you are in.
5. Website name: Freehostia
Freehostia offers too many options, too much information, and too many graphics on each page. You feel like you are going to sign your life away by using this site. This site has many different hosting options that seem too similar to one another to warrant having so many options. Too much of a good thing. This site offers half the disc space and half the domains as the sites listed above. Again, they put out too much information and don’t let you get to the design page until you are too many clicks into the site to remember what you wanted to do in the first place. The design interface is not streamlined enough for the beginning user. Blogger is much, much easier to use, update, and understand. Free does not mean equal.
1.) http://www.musicblogscatalog.com/blues/
Accessibility: Not very easy to use. Did not have a signin/login feature, or a "sign up here to start your own blog!" feature. Too many links to other websites and genres of music to really see what's going on on the webpage. Compared to Blogger.com, I don't like it. I prefer Blogger.com much more--it seems more open and relatable for everyone to use.
2.) http://blog.rooftopcomedy.com/2009/09/15/introducing-the-most-popular-blog-in-the-world/
Pretty easy to use and accessible for everyone. Did not include a login/signin feature either, but did have search engines, and the original website that this blog stems from. Also had a feature that showed where you could find this blog, such as popular sites like Myspace, Facebook, etc. Still prefer Blogger.com, but this seems like a nice, down-to-earth company.
3.) http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/hiphopmediatraining/171413/kanye-west-has-truly-lost-it-this-time/
This blog was very user-friendly. It had information abaout signing up for your own blog and/or e-mail account, and it offered many useful links related to the pertinent story, along with videos, and other mediums of hip-hop music and culture. Blogger.com is a bit more "commercial", whereas this site is a bit more of a journaling blog.
4.) http://www.wksu.org/classical/
Fairly easy to use, but not as much as the above blog site. Included many links, pictures, and opportunities to listen to the actual radio station, and read about all sorts of other music. Again, this was more fo a journal blog, rather nthan a "Hey, I'm going to post my random thoughts of the day on this blog" site. I like this because it seems more academic and really focused on promoting good understanding of classical music today.
5.) http://www.livemusicblog.com/
Interesting site, and fairly easy to use as well. Featured many links to subscribe, see archives, etc., and categories of different live music, including great video footage of various live concerts. Still like blogger.com better, but this is also another good journal type blog.
First Site:
livejournal.com
This site was relatively easy to set up. However I was asked multiple times during the process whether I wanted to upgrade to the premium service for a fee, which became frustrating. The basic service iteslf does not have many designs or features that make it all together interesting, which is why I would prefer Blogger to Live Journal.
Second Site:
wordpress.com
I thought that this sight was also very easy to set up. One feature that I found interesting the was language option, allowing the user to choose between a wide variety of languages to make primary. The administrators page also has many cool features such as the views per day graph and the widget showing when other sites link to yours. As Michael said, this site is definitely competitive with Blogger.
Third Site:
weebly.com
This site is slightly different than a blogging site, but I still found it interesting. To me this hosting site was more focused on creating a complete website than a daily bloggin site. Set-up was very easy and I had fun choosing the templates and creating multiple pages for my site. There were even templates geared directly for education which I found very interesting. I think that for what we are doing in MED 325 Blogger is the better option but I would definitely consider weebly if I wanted to create a website outside of class.
Fourth Site:
blogtext.com
This was probably my least favorite and most frustrating site. It was not very clear where to create a new blog and for some reason would not let me type in my birthdate, so I had to close the window and start again. The blog page itelf was uninteresting and the template options were not as interesting as those on other hosting sites. I would not reccommend this site.
Fifth Site:
bloguni.com
The final site that I found was a seemingly generic hosting site. Registering was also fairly easy, but the website did not send me a response email. I double checked the email but could not activate my account because I recieved no email. I browsed through the site and it did seem like a realatively useful blogging site but I do not think that it had all of the options of Blogger.
Site #1. www.socialgo.com
This site was very interesting in that it was a personal website creator and a social network creator in the same site. It is easy to use but could potentially be challenging depending on how advanced the user want to be. It is set up very similar to facebook in look and features except you can customize the look of the site. They also provide workshops on how to set up more advanced features on your site. As compared to blogger.com, it was much more in depth in all the features and of course the main addition of social networking. It also seemed like it would take much more time to set up and more things could be customized than with blogger.com.
Site #2. www.moogo.com
This site is very easy to use and has the option of being free or paid for businesses. In about 10 minutes, the user could have a website set up. On the home page, they provide a ton of examples of moogo sites to look through. This was important to me because it showed the full range of what the site can provide. This site was similar to blogger.com in that it provided a few basic templates to start with, and then the user is free to customize as little or as much as they want.
Site #3. www.wix.com
This site had a very cool video on the home page showing everything the site can do. They have a lot of interesting templates, creative ideas about formatting, and it is accessible to everyone. The actual building of your site is very easy and reminds me of using a mac computer as compared to a pc. Everything is just simplified and works great! I like it better than blogger.com because you can see everything as you work instead of constantly moving back and forth between editing and previewing.
Site #4. www.webs.com
This was another site that could be as involved as the user wants. It provided many options to the user all the way through a fully functioning networking site complete with forums and Google PayPal to sell products. It was very accessible to all users, similar to wix in format. It is very similar to blogger.com in features, but provides more options and room for growth.
Site #5. www.wetpaint.com
This site is easy to use and you can set up a website in under 2 minutes. They seemed to have more questions about the user than other sites I’ve tried and less formatting in the initial setup. The templates they have available were similar to blogger.com templates, but they were easy to customize. They seem to be a tight-knit community (all the wetpaint.com websites), and many of their sites seems entertainment related. I feel like blogger.com is interchangeable with wetpaint.com – they have many of the same features.
1.Google sites
This free website host is very basic and simple to begin setting up a webpage. There is a five step process in which the longest part is deciding on the name of your website. The background designs are versatile and offer some uniqueness. Once the initial steps of the web site set-up are done new pages and links can be easily added. Many of the options offered by other Google sites can be added to pages such as documents, calendars, photo galleries and advertisements. The ability to edit and create pages is very easy and user friendly oriented. Based on my short use of blogger.com I would consider this website set up and maintenance to be just as easy as blogger.com with excellent step by step instructions to get a basic and good looking website designed in a short amount of time with a large amount of space to expand up the website usage.
2. Freevlog
This is a website that discusses and teaches a person to create a video blog. This user friendly start has about 17 different videos on how to vlog. The videos are broken down into three categories, how to tell the story, how to create the video, and then how to post your video. It was unclear if this was actually a site that could host vlogs because one of the videos discusses setting up a blogger.com site for your blog to publish the videos, however there is a login part of the site as well which confused me. The learning videos were very well done and very clear in the steps that need to be take and follow a clear progression at a good pace. The forum section of the website allows for discussion of the three main categories of the learning videos as well as more technical concerns such as equipment. The ease of the use of the website is great in finding information but it is unclear if the site is there for hosting vlogs or just for learning how to vlog.
3. Edublogs
Edublogs is an educator and student focused blog site with two different aspects to it. One aspect of the site is the free blogs that can be hosted, the other aspect is their “campus” payment system in which there are more controls for security that a school district can purchase a license agreement for one of four different level programs based on a school district’s needs. The free blogs for educators and students are easy to sign up for. The blog site allows for podcasting and video blogging. The set up is broken down into three steps for starting the blog site. There is a little bit of a wait because the site emails you a link to create the blogsite however after that the customization is very easy. There are drop down menus on the left hand colum in which are the various editing tools including a large amount of various pre-created backgrounds for the blog site. In comparison to blogger.com I found this just as easy or easier to get started and set-up with blogging initially. For younger students who might not be adept at finding some of the customization tools it might be harder for them to make it look cool but the basic concepts are easy to begin with.
4. Wordpress.com
This is a free blog site that takes seconds to create an account. It is easy to set-up an account similar to that of blogger.com. It has many of the same features allowing for personalization with customizable backgrounds, having sidebar widgets they call them allowing the blogger to link flickr accounts and other types of media to their blog. One interesting feature I have not explored in blogger.com that is advertised as a feature in wordpress is the ability to track the # of viewers on the blog per day. This would be an important feature to those individuals that write blogs publicly for a living depending on people to read their blogs and take their advice on issues or personal needs.
5. Livejournal.com
This is a free blog is very easy to set up a blog on. There is a questionnaire that asks for basic information. It is in total a 3 step process that has a pay feature for more customizable features however I opted to decide upon paying later. The site is very user friendly and easy to browse through. One unique feature of this site is the live chat feature allowing you to with other people on the site that follow your journal. This is not really educationally focused however would be a good site that students could use to blog on.
First Blog Site:
www.wordpress.com
This site seemed to be fairly easy to set up an account. On the first home page it has a huge icon that says sign up now. Then, you click on that icon and it takes you to another page where all you have to do is enter a user name and make up a password. Then you choose an email in which you want your information to be sent to. This site seems very easy to operate because they simplify it a lot.
Second Site: www.livejournal.com
This is another free blog account. The thing about this account that is different from the rest is that they create different categories for blogs. They give you different options for using it such as personal journal, styaing in touch, content you care about, or for true community. On the front page they feature the hotest blogs of the week also and provide links to them.
Third Site: weebly.com
This site has the most simple set up compared to the other blogs. It reminds me of facebook. It has a box for sign in or for you to sign up if you do not have an account. It seems to be less commerical and competetive as the others. There are not as many listing and advertisements which make it easy to get to what you need to. It is straight to the point and very simple.
Fourth Site: www.bloguni.com
This fourth site bloguni is a bit more complex than the previous ones listed. It seems to emphasis more a universal use for the blogs. It has some different lanugages written at the bottom of the text. But, when you click on the sign up icon it seems more simplified. The home page is not as appealing as the rest of the sites listed.
Fifth Site: www.thefreesite.com
This website for the free blogs turned me off a bit. It was very wordy and complicated. It had a lot of extra information that was not needed. It had several different types of blog hosts that you could use. But, I would not recommend this site for a first time user.
Out of all of the sites livejournal.com was my favorite.
livejournal.com
This was very simple to set up. It took the simple steps, and all were quite easy. Live journal has different browsing categories. You can search for other journals by similar interests. This could come in handy in terms of networking. Both live journal and blogger are very easy.
thoughts.com
Setting the account up was very easy and very fast. I just had to create a user name and password and was set to begin. I would prefer to use blogger over thoughts.com, at least from an education standpoint. The first thing that popped up included someone's very inappropriate entry.
weebly.com
This was also simple to sign up for. However, I found it a bit confusing once I opened my account. I didn't know hoe to set up my page. I ended up dragging way too many things onto my page and made a mess. I think blogger is easier to use overall.
bloguni.com
This was easy to set up. It was just a little more time consuming because I had to wait to receive my password via email. It did give you a link of what you could do if it took a lot of time to receive the password. Blogger and bloguni were both easy to set up. I would still prefer blogger, it is easier and quicker to use.
Wordpress.com
Word press was pretty easy to set up. I got the feeling that this is a much more professional website that could be used for a business career. I also think it would complement a personal website. This could work for an educator, but it is not as easy to use as blogger.com.
http://wordpress.com/
It is very easy to set up a blog with wordpress. All that is needed is a valid email address, picking a user name, and password. The blog has many different themes to choose from to customize your blog, also there are lots of widgets to use to do pretty much anything you want. I like this better than Blogger.com because it seems cleaner and easier to customize how I want it.
http://www.livejournal.com/
Livejournal is also very easy to set up. You can get up and going in just a matter of minutes. The layout is similary to Blogger.com. There are many different themes to choose from like the other sites, but it does not seem as customizable as some other sites. I like this about the same as Blogger.com it doesn’t seem to offer anything special that I can find yet, and just seems like another free blog site.
http://www.thoughts.com
This site is also easy to create an account, but I feel that getting a blog up and running is slightly more difficult just in how it’s layed out. It does offer cool features like direct uploading of pictures, videos, and even podcasts. It also can have a discussion board and polls which is really neat. This site has more to offer than Blogger.com, but with the extra features comes extra work in setting everything up.
http://clearblogs.com
This site has both free and paid blog hosting. The free hosting is limited in size to 2Mb, has less template than paid blogs, and lacks other features. Generally it’s pretty simple to get started, but I feel limited by the small number of customizable options. Perhaps a paid blog would be better, but for the free blog I’d rather use Blogger.com
http://www.sosblog.com
Sosblog is very simple, almost to the point of being dumbed down too much. The set up is simple, but you have limited choices in features and themes. All the themes are pretty much the same which is disapointing. Once again this is nothing special and has nothing better or compelling to make it stand out. It is similar to blogger.com and I don’t care for it.
Find at least 5 sites where you can host a website or blog for free. You must provide the following information:
Blog Site #1
Website name: Wordpress.com
Describe the ease of setting up a website with this host: It is very easy. The "Sign up now!" button appears large and clear on the main page.
Describe features that make setting up a website with this host easy or difficult. They use a "one-step" sign up form, which makes it easy. Also, on the sign-up form there is an optional bubble that can be clicked in order to set up a personal website immediately.
Describe how this website compares to blogger.com. Honestly, besides the fact that blogger.com has a widely popular name, I felt that the sites almost seemed the same: simple and effective.
Blog Site #2
Website name: Livejournal.com
Describe the ease of setting us a website with this host. This site is very simple as well. The sign-up button used to create an account appears in the top right, just like most normal websites.
Describe features that make setting up a website with this host easy or difficult. This site is a little more complex, considering the fact that Windows Live IDs are needed to link and create a blog.
Describe how this website compares to blogger.com. It is not quite as simple as blogger.com, but seems equally effective.
Blog Site #3
Website name: Weebly.com
Describe the ease of setting us a website with this host. It is extremely easy. You hardly need to provide any information.
Describe features that make setting up a website with this host easy or difficult. This site uses a unique and useful tool that lets you drag and drop movies, pictures and other media right into the blog. This is much more simple and convenient than having to locate the file on your computer and inputting the file location.
Describe how this website compares to blogger.com. This site is, in my opinion, more user accessible than blogger.com. I like how incredibly basic and effective the layout is.
Blog Site #4
Website name: BlogUni
Describe the ease of setting us a website with this host: It is extremely simple to set up a personal blog on this website. Similar to Weebly.com, the "Sign up now!" button appears in large bold font on the front page of the website.
Describe features that make setting up a website with this host easy or difficult. It is extremely simple and obvious, as there are only a few pieces of information needed to make a user name/blog. There is a bubble to click that indicates that you want your own blog website as well.
Describe how this website compares to blogger.com. I believe it is more simple and user-friendly. This aspect I like, as blogs are so commonly used by people with any array of computer experience.
Blog Site #5
Website name: Clearblogs
Describe the ease of setting us a website with this host. It is relatively simple to set up a blog on this site, however not as easy as some of the previous choices.
Describe features that make setting up a website with this host easy or difficult. This blog site has various help functions to make it more user-friendly, but still not as much as some of the previous choices.
Describe how this website compares to blogger.com. While it has nice functions, blogger.com is a better pick in my opinion. This site does not seem to have as much money, time and effort into it as blogger.com does.
www.Blogsome.com
This was the easiest of all the ones I tried. I was able to have my own blog in about two minutes. I just needed to select a blog's website, submit an email address, blog title, and do the validation, read their terms and conditions, and voila! it was done. It was even easier than blogger.com
www.soulcast.com
This was also fairly easy to set up. I just needed to give uersname, email, and password. I was informed that info would be sent to my email. It was as easy as blogger.com.
www.multiply.com
This was easy as well to set up. Upon giving user id, password, name, email address, birthday, gender, verification, the screen came up that said, "Customize your site". And when I chose one, a beautiful background came up for my blog. It was a little bit mroe work than blogger.com.
www.1sweethost.com
I was required to choose subdomain and give name, email, password, city, state, zip code, country, gender, birthday and validation. There were lots of options i had to choose or refuse such as free, bronze, silver, gold package, eliminate pop ups for a fee, check if would like Free ArcaMax Newsletter, Inbox Dollars, or Daily Horoscope. Aside from these distractions, was smooth to set up. But it was more complicated than blogger.com.
www.x10Hosting
This was the most complex of all that I had to do. I had to go through the following ten steps: Step 1: domain, Step 2: Will follow rules of language, Step 3, email address, account username, password full name, birthdate, and country. Step 4 any sites used by multiple persons will be suspended. Step 5 Create enw forum account. Step 6 Agree will not host illegal material. Step 7 Terms of Service. Step 8 Continue to next step. Step 9 Click if want to receive email or select white papaers to your inbox. Step 10 continue to account panel. This was by far, the most compolicated one to sign up.
1. http://wordpress.com/
Easy to use and set up, with minimal steps required. I would say this is a pretty simple blog and its layouts are all pretty basic, with no over the top shapes. Simply squares and rectangles. The website seems less for a teacher because it emphasizes on stats and your personal visitors. Its much more office and business like as well. I think I may like the simplicity and more modern layouts compared to blogger.
2.http://bloguni.com/
Again set up is fairly simple. The website doesnt give you any clue as to how it will look once you start so I am very skeptical. It does however have anti spamming software which is a plus. I would like blogger better because of its less sketch availability.
3http://www.weebly.com/
Very easy to use and fun looking. THis one seems to be very good for any type of blog, be it teaching or business. It lets you do just about anything and you can add video directly without the use of other programs. It basically does the work for you. I dont know how much I will be able to protect students for searching for other blogs but I'm sure there is a way. Sorry blogger but this one is tops!
4.http://www.thoughts.com/free-blog
UGH!!! The opening is soo scattered and its very confusing for any high schooler or younger who would want to make one or find mine! There is also no filter or care for those who might just be perusing the website. any person can see your blog and post about anything. Inappropriate blogs are not locked away or prompted with age requirements so I think parents would not like this one. blogger wins.
5. Blog.com
This website is pretty awesome. It is a lot like weebly.com in that it guides you through every step and the layouts/theme of entire website is similar. I don't think you can do as much on here however. It seems almost too simple. But i do like the layouts and ease of use better than blogger.
www.xanga.com
The website is very accessible in terms of being able to set up a website. It is very user-friendly. All you have to do is sign up through email and you can start. It provides templates for whatever look you want to give your blog and other useful tools.
This website actually reminds me a big of blogger.com. Although, I have not used a xanga blog in quite a while, I feel that they are both extremely user friendly, but I will say that the features in blogger made it a bit more easier to manage and make it easier to add things the user would like to add.
www.livejournal.com
The website functions very much like xanga did. All you have to do is have an e-mail address to sign up for the website. In terms of how easy it is to navigate and make your blog, i found it to be a bit less "image" friendly compared to xanga and blogger. This is probably because I'm not as technologically literate, but it was easy for me to be confused about what my choices where. It seems to be catered towards people who want to be journalists and who have a specific area of interest. I probably wouldn't use this website. Otherwise, it does all the same things the other two blogs do, they're just differently presented.
www.thoughts.com
The website has the same sign up format that the other two have. What stuck out about this website though, is how complicated everything looks. it's not very aesthetically pleasing in terms of user friendliness. I tend to like big pictures or over sized buttoned instructions. Compared to the aforementioned blogs I'd much rather use them for their easiness on the eyes and manageability.
www.blogs.myspace.com
If you have a myspace, you can easily use this to make a blog too. The only problem with this is that I feel that a lot of parents would probably be bothered if you use myspace as a teaching tool, because of the bad reputation it has acquired. It's not as pretty as blogger or xanga, really. Really plain and boring almost. Making alterations to it is not as easy or as fun as it is on blogger.
www.wordpress.com
This website is very easy to use, and it is aesthetically pleasing enough. It has a very classical feel to it, in terms of the palette of template. It is user friendly, as far as I can tell. Compared to blogger, i would say they just about are equally matched. You can do the same things as on blogger, but finding out how to alter,change,add,take off involves a bit more. Not completely as easy as blogger.
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