Tumblr vs Blogger (Blogspot)

If you did not know, I decided to run my blog on both Tumblr and Blogger (also called blogspot). If you feel the need to follow me on Tumbler, then simple go to http://canvasspots.tumblr.com and start following me. I've tried to set it up as best I can the same, but very quickly I am starting to see there are several differences between the two. Some for the better and some for the worse.

My Personal Blogging History
Now, I've always been a Blogger fan when it comes to writing blogs. When you search blog in Google, Blogger is the first to come up (which may have something to do with the fact that Google owns Blogger). When I first got into blogging back in the day, that is what I did and that is how I first ended up on here. And to be honest, it has all the tools a beginner really needs to start off.

But as I have mentioned in my very first blog, this new account is to symbolize a starting-over of my entire blogging history. As such, I feel that it is time to branch out and reach for other mediums to quickly blog on. That is why I have a Twitter account and that is why I want to do a Tumbler as well.

So I opened it up for the first time today and worked on getting my theme set-up over there as well. It took a while, but the Tumblr team has made editing the theme very easily. I'm not joking, editing the theme on Tumblr is brilliantly done so that anyone can enjoy quickly changing colors and then getting started or getting into the real kinks of the machine and working out problems. Being as I have some experience in website programming, that is exactly what I did. I dipped into the code and started tinkering until I got the results I wanted. Just for reference, the results I wanted were not that much different from the page I already had. I basically added a Twitter feed and moved on.

The Differences
When it comes down to it, I actually think the Tumblr system is much nicer for newcomers to the blogging world. They've basically turned blogging into a feed so that people can quickly get to creating and spend less time messing around. And I like that. Want a photograph added, there's a quick link at the top to upload and move on. Want to show off your new Youtube video? There's a button for that one too. So for the simplicity side of things, Tumblr has that down.

In fact, the only thing that can be complex, should you want it to be, is your personal theme. You can hire someone to write the code for you, buy a theme from their stock pile, or just do it yourself. That is honestly it. I think they have chosen to do this so that the website stays what they meant for it to originally be, a quick-blogging website.

Meanwhile, Blogger is a little bit more cumbersome to the newer people that use it. If you want to add a photograph, you have to make a new post. And adding a new photograph looks kind of weird, so you probably won't do that alone and will need to write something. Want to put your video in, well that requires a new post too. Like I have said before (though I believe on Tumblr), for the new-age of A.D.D. driven bloggers that is just too much work.

But having to go into each post and really start editing things has lead to another outcropping for Blogger, they have editing tools! Unlike Tumblr where everything is congruent and you must conform to their way of posting pictures, text, and videos, Blogger allows the users to make each and every post different with all of the editing options. And not only that, but they make a large majority of them user-friendly from the get go. Want to go farther than those user-friendly button you see in each blog? No problem, just click the HTML button and get to writing the code yourself.

My Personal Preference
Hands down I prefer Blogger for making my posts. I can make them easily, lengthy, and actually the way I want them to appear for my viewers. However, as far as networking and socializing goes, I really love the way Tumblr is set up. So in the end there is no winning (yet) and I'm just going to have to do both. And since I can't copy and paste code from Blogger to Tumblr (or vise-versa), I'm going to be forced to use them for their advantages. In other words, stay tuned to both!