The reason why I selected Google Blogger

In SW Maestro, 3 mentors for our team are fixed, and we got our first official mentoring from mentor 배권한.

He gave us an assignment - make a personal blog and post an article about co-working tools. He insisted we run a blog for 4 reasons.

1. We forget what we have studied someday
2. We can realize something new when we think about it again
3. Somebody like a headhunter may contact me through my blog
4. To make my activities visible

So, I decided to make a post about pros and cons of famous blog services.

Criteria of Selection

I consider these factors.

Main Factors

1. It should 'work' well.
2. It should be easy to parse my posts from the blog.
3. It should be easy to write code on my blog.
4. It must take responsive design, so that it can be seen with mobile device.
5. It must be easy to be exposed by Google search.
6. It must provide reply function.

Sub Factors

1. It is good if the design is fine.
2. It is good if the markdown function is provided.

Comparison among Blog Services

I could find a GitHub repository that organized what kind of blog services famous developers of South Korea and the world use.

Popular Web Sites

• naver.com, blog.me
• 29 people use
• Koreans only
• tistory.com 
• 75 people use
• Koreans only
• egloos.com 
• 11 people use 
• Koreans only
• tumblr.com
• 7 people use
• Koreans only
• brunch.co.kr 
• 76 people use
• Koreans only
• medium.com 
• 54 people use
• 42 Koreans use
• github.io 
• 88 people use
• 78 Koreans use
• blogspot.kr, blogspot.com
• 28 people use
• Koreans only
• Maybe there are more people because it is able to change the domain name

Pros and Cons

Naver

Pros Many Koreans use... Cons It uses native search-exposure algorithm. So it is difficult to find Naver blogs from Google search. It doesn't support Code Snippet or Gist. It doesn't support custom design. People who doesn't have Naver account are not allowed to leave a reply. (So foreigners will never leave feedback to me.)

Tistory

Pros It has comparatively high degree of freedom in design. It supports visitor counting function. It is still growing. (?) Cons Text editor is too inconvenient. Each functionality is scattered.

Tumblr

Pros It supports markdown. Text editor is convenient to use. There is a mobile app. Themes are aesthetic and customization works well.  Users can leave reply with Disqus. Cons There is no category system. A Windows program is needed to edit posts, and it takes too much resource.

Brunch

Pros It is made by Kakao Design theme is sentimental And there are lots of advantage to use it but ... Cons It doesn't support Code Snippet or Gist.

Medium

Pros It supports Code Snippet and Gist. Text Editor is convenient. Cons Theme Customization is restrictively allowed. Font is fixed with Serif, so that Korean font is fixed with myeong-zo(명조), and this font is so ugly.

Jekyll

Pros It is possible to use Ruby. (But I don't use Ruby.) It bases on GitHub Pages service. It is possible to attach additional functionalities. It has high degree of freedom in design. It provides markdown. Cons I have to switch my GitHub account premium to make my articles private. It's too free, so it's little bit bothersome to use.

Blogger (Google Blogspot)

Pros It is made by Google. Need I mention more..? It provides developer API. I can extract json strings about my posts, pages, and comments from database with API. We can see more about API from public Google supporting page. We can edit posts with html. So it is easy to apply syntax highlighting. So design customization is maximum-free. It provides markdown by adding a module. It provides fucking-strong visitor statistics. I can write a post blaming Korean government with an easy mind because the server is at the abroad. Fake Cons There is no category concept. But, it is substituted by tag impeccably. tag is better than category because tag can make M:N relationship with posts while category only can make 1:N relationship with posts. There is no secret reply functionality. But, it can make unsociable comment culture, so it is better without that functionality. Most Koreans don't use Google blog and Google search engine. But, most Korean developers do. :) Cons There is no trackback concept. There is no file upload functionality. I have to make a cloud share link to upload.

Conclusion

Google Blogger satisfies every aspect that I consider while others have at least one trivial flaw.

Therefore, I decided to use Google Blogger for my blog service.

From now on, my blog is started.

Welcome, everyone!