Blogger (from Google) is redesigned and with it goes static publishing. Like Matt says, whatever happened to the static publishing pros. I think with this change, it should probably read Blogger is reborn.
For starters, static publishing is a way of exporting the post to HTML. A post when published, is processed, the HTML is composed and is saved as a page to be ready to be served. This was considered better as serving ready and composed pages did not go through the web server processing and increased performance. The lopside to this was that it was, for lack of a better word, static, which does not fit very well with today’s dynamic web. If there was a change, the post had to re-exported to HTML. Think of a change, like change in the sidebar or layout or design, that will affect all the posts and think of the trouble of republishing all of the posts. For all the ease that Blogger said it had, the user had to know when to republish all the posts, which actually can eat up lot of your time. This was a fundamental difference between WordPress and Blogger. Well, now its gone.
Another concept Blogger has embraced is the tags, or labels as they call it! It is very close to categories in WordPress. This will definitely bring in better navigation and better tagging for the users. However, the dilemma for lot of users would be whether to tag the existing posts done using the old blogger. If not, the tags will miss a lot of posts and not serve as good navigation.
Along with this, the hosted service, Blogspot.com will gradually get all these features.
Movable Type still supports static publishing. It does support a dynamic workaround, but it is strongly discouraged as a host of third party plugins don’t work in the dynamic mode.
Now that Blogger has got the new face it will be interesting to see if the demographics change. The existing loyalists would probably not leave, but new bloggers will have to compare a little more between the different blogging tools as the gaps between them is reducing.
Technorati tags: blogger, static publishing, blogspot
Copyright Abhijit Nadgouda.
Abhijit Nadgouda @ iface 
August 15, 2006 at 5:36 am
[…] Abhijit Nadgouda gives you the lowdown on the just-released Blogger upgrades. […]
August 15, 2006 at 9:43 pm
The lack of such features was the reason I left Blogger.com shortly after starting my blog and moved to WordPress. I’m definitely not going back!
August 15, 2006 at 10:59 pm
True. I too had chosen wordpress.com over blogspot.com for the same reasons.
August 16, 2006 at 12:09 am
I also chose WordPress over Blogger, more because my widgets stayed there should I change themes. I am not impressed that I have to pay to customise my css directly when I can do it on Blogger for free, but better security and comment-spam prvention over a small desire of this.
Also, WordPress’s interface is just easier to navigate, period.
August 16, 2006 at 12:27 am
Perhaps this will force wordpress.com to offer custom .css for free, since the new and improved Blogger seems to be very nice, indeed.
August 16, 2006 at 12:33 am
I used blogger for more than 2 yrs, but hardly posted anything in there. With wordpress, I make atleast one post a day. Something about stats and comments and trckbacks, keeps you coming back for more.
August 16, 2006 at 3:49 am
blogger is ok, but its a bit sleazy for blogspam and garbage custom templates and f*cked up templates and virusware/adware, its the nieghbors i dont like there – the upgrade will probably be beyond many of the bloggers abilities to figure out
WordPress is better so far i hope its control remains it it does not end up like many of the blogger blogs.
August 16, 2006 at 7:28 am
I just launched my blog here in WordPress. I moved from Blogger after being there for 10 months. There are many reasons why I left Blogger but one major thing was that WordPress had a lot more features than Blogger (like the labels).
Now that the Blogger has the upgrade will I go back? NO WAY! Anyways they have a lot more things to do to improve a blogger’s experience.
August 16, 2006 at 9:01 am
WordPress.com does not allow free CSS customization, but overall blogging experience is better because of better admin interface and tools like Akismet. And even if CSS customization is not allowed, a wide range of themes are available, for every taste.