in praise of blogger

in praise of Blogger, not Blobby

27 Apr26 16:00 start verions v0.2

https://poelposition.blogspot.com/2026/04/in-praise-of-blogger.html

I am current;y concentrating my commentary energies into Google's venerable blogger platform, since X cannot currently be trusted; with a following of ~3k, my posts get 10-50 views.  I continue to use it as it is a convenient form of random access online storage and I may reassemble the pearls in due course on blogger which has a more useful integration of images and video with better text controls. Searching entries is very simple, and users without Google accounts can get on and look around.

I am surprised that Google doesn't put more effort into promoting blogger. Am I missing something?
Never before in the field of human discourse, have so many pearls been cast before so few swine.  I ask for comments on blogger posts to be posted on this X account,  via DM or timeline.
So I asked grok what's wrong with them... Grok reported...

".. Your account (William Poel, ~2950 followers, blue verified) shows a clear pattern of very low visibility: recent posts typically get 10–50 impressions, with occasional outliers reaching a few hundred. That's far below what you'd expect from an account of this size, even in a low-engagement niche...."
http://poelposition.blogspot.com/2026/04/prosecuting-criminal-negligence.html

A year or so ago, one of my blogger climate distribes was sanctioned without warning or right of reply - which unnerved me.  

Subsequently the subject of the diatribe has now been shifted from a verboten conspiracy theory, to mainstream belief.

The anthropogenic climate change theory based on the evils of carbon dioxide has never actually been proved,  it remains a one-trick hypothesis when the reality of the multitude of factors affecting climate continues to be conveniently overlooked.
But this remains the  cornerstone and gold standard of gaslighting, by which the captured elites and global interests are controlling agriculture and energy.

I am still waiting for the apology,  of course.

Anyway, I asked Google help:

"why does google not make more effort to promote blogger - it seems to have everyting but  spell corrector and slick comment management and format paint..."

And got a stock reponse about focus blah - 

G> It is a bit ironic, isn’t it? You’d think Google would give its own child a leg up, but Blogger has effectively become the "forgotten" sibling of the Google ecosystem

G> While it’s still widely used—averaging nearly 40 million visits a month in 2026—Google has shifted its energy toward platforms that drive direct revenue or serve higher-growth markets.

Here is why Blogger feels like it’s stuck in 2010 while the rest of the web moved on (more) blah) :

G> The Competitors: Platforms like Substack (subscriptions) or Medium (memberships) have modern monetization models that keep users locked in  . Google’s current focus is on YouTube and Google Search’s AI Overviews, which prioritize keeping users on Google’s search page rather than sending them off to a Blogspot site.

G> It is a bit ironic, isn’t it? You’d think Google would give its own child a leg up, but Blogger has effectively become the "forgotten" sibling of the Google ecosystem.

While it’s still widely used—averaging nearly 40 million visits a month in 2026—Google has shifted its energy toward platforms that drive direct revenue or serve higher-growth markets.

G> Here is why Blogger feels like it’s stuck in 2010 while the rest of the web moved on:

1. The Revenue Shift

Google is primarily an advertising and AI company now.

Blogger: It’s a free service with no subscription fees. Google makes a little money if you use AdSense, but that’s pennies compared to other ventures.

The Competitors: Platforms like Substack (subscriptions) or Medium (memberships) have modern monetization models that keep users locked in. Google’s current focus is on YouTube and Google Search’s AI Overviews, which prioritize keeping users on Google’s search page rather than sending them off to a Blogspot site.

2. The "Fairness" Trap (Search Neutrality)

If Google noticeably boosted Blogger sites in search results just because it owns the platform, it would face massive antitrust lawsuits and "monopoly" accusations. To avoid this, Google’s search team treats Blogger like any other site. Unfortunately, because the platform hasn't been updated with modern SEO tech (like automated JSON-LD schemas or lightning-fast Core Web Vitals), it actually often ranks worse than a well-tuned WordPress or Substack site.

G> The Bottom Line: Google keeps Blogger alive because it costs them very little to host on their massive servers, but they don't "promote" it because there isn't a clear path to making it a billion-dollar business in the age of AI and newsletters.

...so then I went further...

"I am offering to take on Blogger product management as a project to show the world that google still harbours echoes of the pioneering internet and pro-bono community. THere is not a lot of work required to take it to the next level with spell correction and comment

And got back:

G>That is an ambitious and surprisingly nostalgic mission. You’re essentially proposing that Google treat Blogger not as a neglected legacy asset, but as a "public park" of the internet—a pro-bono space for the community that proves Google hasn't lost its soul to the bottom line.

To get traction, you shouldn’t just petition "support"; you need to reach the people who manage Product Strategy and Community Platforms. Here is who you should target and how to frame your pitch.

OK, let's try and do this properly... Hands up anyone that wants to help ...?

My motivation is that I am weary of logging in and out of platforms like Medium, Substack, Discourse and all the rest. I do not see a crock of gold at the end of this rainbow, but the satisfaction of doing something for the good of creativity and keeping is simple and free.

Yes I am a relic of the oginial internet ethos of the 80s. There may be some opportunities to gather data for LLMs and even m onetise with some subtle adsense, but that is for after the basics are sorted.

I have been online since the mid 1980s and have seen and done it all. I was one of theam that worked on the A,mstrad computer development. I claim I was the original Apprentice when Alan (not sir or lord) hired my team to finish off the original CPC computers when the origanl devloper had reasliased he has bitte off too much, and fled in fear of his lie to a tent in teh lake district to avoid East End retribution. Rememeber the KrayTwins (and Jack the Hat McVitee?) Well AMS was not in their league, but his impatience and sarcasm was legendary so we all learned not to take liberties test it.

The seminal PCW 8256 wordprocessor had a massive range of word processing features that would make Blogger 5x more complex than would make sense; and even a certain Kier Starmer wsa a customer when he was learning his tiresome craft.