e-Learning Centre: Blogging� tools

This is an excellent page full of blog options for classroom blogs. It allows the facilitator to weigh their options as it relates to the safety and accesibility of the site. Ideally I would have chosen edublogs for the students but went with blogger.com becuase it was free, easy, and had a nice user interface. I did not go for a community site like Live Journal for fourth graders it offered too much access to the outside world. However for a personal blog I probably will try out live journal, it looks like it would be a lot of fun for adults and older teens.


This page provides links to a number of tools that will help you to create blogs, mobile blogs, audio blogs (aka podcasts) and video blogs (aka vblogs), as well as read and keep up to date with blog postings. Listed in alphabetical order.

Apcala
"Public blogging service based on the GPL Elgg engine (http://elgg.net), which was designed for use in education. Users can start their own weblog for free as well as upload files and find people with similar interests. A powerful keyword system allows you to find all the people, weblog posts and files related to a single topic."
Added: 13 April 2005
Reviewer's Note: Sign up for an account - it's completely free, and all you need is a valid email address


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Audioblog.com
"Audioblog.com is the powerful and easy-to-use audio (and video!) publishing service that puts your voice in your weblog or online journal."
Added: 29 November 2004
Reviewer's Note: Record over the Web user BlogRecorder™ Videoblogging with your webcam!


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b2evolution
"b2evolution is probably the most comprehensive blog engine you can find! It includes almost any feature you could expect from a blog tool, and more. Check out the features, not to mention third party plug-ins!"
Added: 2 March 2005
Reviewer's Note: It's free, it's open-source (GPL), it runs virtually anywhere (PHP/mySQL) and it's available in many languages.


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bBlog
"bBlog is a powerful, elegant personal publishing system written in PHP and released as free, Open Source software under the GPL. It is a flexible but simple way to blog that works for blogging beginners, and can grow into a more advanced user's needs."
Added: 20 May 2005
Reviewer's Note: "Perhaps bBlog's most distinctive feature is that it is built around a templating system called Smarty, which makes customizing your blog as easy as editing any web page, no programming skills required."


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Blogbinders
"Blogbinders.com helps you turn your blog into a bound book - great as a gift, an archive, or even to sell to your readers!"
Added: 27 January 2005
Reviewer's Note: Blog types supported: LiveJournal, Movable Type, TypePad, Blogger and DeadJournal


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BlogBridge
"Don't know what BlogBridge is? No problems - we think it's the best news feed and blog aggregation system - bar none! Not only will BlogBridge let you subscribe to your favorite RSS feeds, it will also help you sort through your existing feeds and help you discover new feeds."
Added: 6 July 2005
Reviewer's Note: "It also comes with a server-based service that will let you synchronize all your feeds across multiple computers, and even maintain your read/unread status across those computers."


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blogdex
Added: 27 July 2004
Reviewer's Note: the weblog diffusion index


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Blogdrive
"Set up your Blog site with just a few clicks; Publish your online journal or diary;; Customize your own page instantly"
Added: 9 May 2004
Reviewer's Note: Free blogsite


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Blogger
"Blogger is a free, web-based tool that helps you publish to the web instantly -- whenever the urge strikes. Blogger is the leading tool in the rapidly growing area of web publishing known as weblogs, or "blogs," as we like to say."
Updated: 15 June 2005
Reviewer's Note: Now you can use Word to create your posts using Blogger for Word


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Blogfuse
"A free blog host that fuses search engine optimization (SEO) in the blog templates and blog marketing to drive the most traffic possible to its blogs."
Added: 15 July 2005
Reviewer's Note: Features include multiple authors per blog and multiple blogs per account


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Bloghub
"Bloghub.com is an online directory and community where members from around the world gather here and exchange ideas."
Updated: 27 March 2005
Reviewer's Note: Over 23,000 blogs listed by March 2005


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BlogIdentity.com
"Blog ID is a powerful and easy-to-use weblog service"
Updated: 23 January 2005
Reviewer's Note: 1 Gb of space, domain name and email address included for £99 a year


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Bloglet
"Register your site with Bloglet; Place a subscription form on your site; Your readers subscribe through this form; Every day, readers receive a single email from Bloglet informing them of your site updates. That's all there is to it."
Added: 20 March 2002
Reviewer's Note: A simple way to add a daily newsletter to a blog


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BlogPlanet
"With BlogPlanet, updating your blog while you're on the go is as easy as writing an SMS. It runs on your mobile or Palm handheld and lets you write new blog entries, send them to your blog, edit them afterwards and delete them. On top of that, you can take pictures with the mobile's built-in camera and include them in your posts."
Added: 20 May 2004
Reviewer's Note: "BlogPlanet is a J2ME blog client and has been tested with the Nokia 3650 and Siemens SX1 because these phones allow camera access by a Java MIDlet. A light version is available for users of other Java enabled phones which offers the same functions as the full version except camera support and picture upload."


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Blogrolling
"BlogRolling is a one-stop linklist manager for your blog or journal, helping you manage your ever-evolving linklist with ease. There are a lot of tools out there to help you blog without getting your hands dirty - but managing your linklist still means having to crawl through the HTML in your template every time you want to add or remove a link. No more! Now it's as simple as clicking a link or making a pit stop at BlogRolling."
Added: 28 February 2004
Reviewer's Note: Basic service is free


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Blog search engine
Updated: 27 March 2005
Reviewer's Note: Download the blog search engine toolbar


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Blogsome
A free web hosting service for blogs
Added: 27 November 2004
Reviewer's Note: Features include: Fast, easy and free; Large selection of designs; Upload photos; Personalize your design


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Blogstreet
Added: 27 July 2004
Reviewer's Note: Blog profiles, RSS ecosystems, blog tops, search and directory


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Blogs Visibility and Battle
"Discover the visibility of your blog; you can compare it with another one." From Timsoft
Added: 12 August 2005
Reviewer's Note: Drag & Drop to ToolBar to find the visibility of the current page in browser


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Blogwise
"Blogwise is a site about developing a portal to blogs around the world, efficiently, quickly and nicely. We're here to help you find the best blogs from around the world that will interest and captivate you."
Updated: 27 March 2005
Reviewer's Note: Over 43,000 blogs listed by March 2005


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drupal.org
"Drupal.org is the official website of Drupal, an open source content management platform. Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal can support a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites."
Updated: 20 May 2005
Reviewer's Note: "Drupal is software that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a great variety of content on a website."


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eBloggy
"eBloggy offers free blog hosting together with tools like blog templates, group blogs and more! With eBloggy, you can update and publish your free blog quickly and easily!"
Added: 14 July 2004
Reviewer's Note: eBloggy features include: yourname.ebloggy.com, Blog Statistics, 100% Customizable (HTML), Group Blogs, Entry Icons, etc


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edublogs.org
This is a "totally unique project aimed at teachers, researchers, writers and educators the world over. Basically you get to set up a free WordPress blog, 10MB of upload space (extending to much much more down the line), an enormous stack of beautiful themes and to be part of a unique community."
Added: 2 August 2005
Reviewer's Note: edublogs.org s a no-strings-attached, open source, ongoing and freely available service for you and you’re invited to take part!


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Fotopages
"Fotopages is a website that allows you to create your own photolog. What is a photolog? It's like a blog, but its designed for people who take lots of photographs.
Added: 9 May 2004
Reviewer's Note: Can also include text as well as pictures


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Google Blog Search
"Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively ... Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice. Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger; our blog index is continually updated, so you'll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results."
Added: 14 September 2005
Reviewer's Note: The goal of Blog Search is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service.


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GrokSoup
"GrokSoup is the best place for you to build and manage a news site. You can create anything here from your own version of CNN, to a weblog, to your internal press room, to your own version of the Drudge Report -- it's up to you. We have browser-based tools that make it easy for you to add, delete, edit, and syndicate content."
Added: 3 September 2001
Reviewer's Note: another weblogging site


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iUplog
"Uplog is an easy to use, full-featured web and mobile blogging service that lets you share and publish your information from anywhere... Get your own Blog site from iUplog and start writing, authoring is as easy as: Using your browser; Sending an email; Snapping a pic."
Added: 24 December 2004
Reviewer's Note: Sign up for a free account!


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JustBlogIt
"JustBlogIt is a Mozilla / Firefox extension to allow easy right-click posting to a weblog. From any website your new blog post is only a right-click away."
Added: 17 October 2004
Reviewer's Note: JustBlogIt supports posting to a variety of weblog system types and is not specific to just one. You can also use the Custom... setting to add any weblog type you want.


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KidzLog
"KidzLog makes weblog publishing both easy and fun. Even young children should be able to publish a weblog with KidzLog."
Added: 29 June 2004
Reviewer's Note: Beta for MacOS X currently downloadable, a Windows version will be available soon


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LiveJournal
"LiveJournal is a simple-to-use (but extremely powerful and customizable) personal publishing ("blogging") tool, built on open source software."
Added: 15 September 2003
Reviewer's Note: Joining the site is free.


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Manila
"Manila is an Internet server application that allows groups of writers, designers and graphics people to manage full-featured, high performance Web sites through an easy-to-use browser interface."
Added: 21 August 2001
Reviewer's Note: Includes edit-this-page buttons and full content management. Can be used for weblogging. Has good reviews


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motime
"You'll be online in less than 5 minutes! And it's free!
Added: 11 May 2004
Reviewer's Note: motime stands for "MOre Than Instant MEssaging". The basic service is a personal web log, private messages, instant messaging client and subscriptions.


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Movable Type
"It is a decentralized, web-based personal publishing system designed to ease maintenance of regularly updated news or journal sites, like weblogs."
Added: 21 August 2002
Reviewer's Note: Open source - now becoming a favourite amongst bloggers.


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MSN Spaces
"With MSN Spaces, you can easily create and manage your blog from your computer or your mobile phone. It's a great way to share information and photos with your friends and family. And best of all, it's free!"
Added: 2 December 2004
Reviewer's Note: Microsoft's new beta blogging service


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Pitas.com
"Hey chief, tired of updating your "news" page for your website and want a page you can update easily, quickly and from any web browser? Or maybe you'd like to let some of your friends add news or links to your page, without giving them access to your normal web page? ... Most people use their pitas page to create some sort of "recent news" page for their site, or a weblog (basically a list of links with some commentary that is updated frequently)"
Added: 3 September 2001
Reviewer's Note: An easy to use (hosted) weblogging tool


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Powerblogs
"PowerBlogs specializes in fast, reliable managed blog hosting using our best-of-breed blogging software."
Added: 20 May 2005
Reviewer's Note: "New bloggers will find PowerBlogs very easy to use, but PowerBlogs also has the best power-features for advanced users. Everything is customizable, even the posting interface!"


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Radio Userland
"Radio UserLand is a unique and powerful web publishing and weblog tool that is used and praised by many of the world's most accomplished web authors. With advanced features such as an integrated news aggregator, Radio enables users to do far more than is possible with the hosted-only weblog products offered by others."
Updated: 23 January 2005
Reviewer's Note: "Download Radio UserLand today and begin experiencing the power and pleasure of personal web publishing. After your free 30-day trial period, Radio costs only $39.95 per year complete with site hosting and 40 megabytes of storage."


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Schoolblogs
"The aim is to make available the potential of weblogs to the educational world. To that end, anyone involved in education can create and maintain an individual SchoolBlog here free of charge. The process is simple, taking a matter of seconds to create an online writing space with its own 'look and feel'."
Added: 7 February 2004
Reviewer's Note: SchoolBlogs was set up by Peter Ford, a former teacher at the British School of Amsterdam, and Adam Curry, ex MTV-vj and co-founder of the United Resources of Jamby


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SeoBlog
"Free blog hosting service featuring search engine friendly URLs, multiple authors and multilingual support, pre-installed scripts and templates"
Added: 14 September 2004
Reviewer's Note: "Get your free blog up and running, in less than a minute! NO popups, NO popunders, NO hidden costs!"


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tBLOG
"A free and bannerless blogging tool!"
Added: 20 June 2003
Reviewer's Note: "With tBLOG you can seamlessly integrate our fully customizable blog templates with any website"


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Technorati
"Want to know what's being said, right now, about every weblog or webpage that has something worth talking about?"
Added: 27 July 2004
Reviewer's Note: "Technorati is the authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs."


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textamerica
"WIth a Moblog you can post pictures, video and text from your camera phone direct to web instantly."
Added: 9 May 2004
Reviewer's Note: Free registration to start posting pictures instantly


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Thingamablog
"Thingamablog is a cross-platform, standalone blogging application that makes authoring and publishing your weblogs almost effortless. Unlike most blogging solutions, Thingamablog does NOT require a third-party blogging host, a cgi/php enabled web host, or a MySQL database. In fact, all you need to setup, and manage, a blog with Thingamablog is FTP, SFTP, or network access to a web server."
Added: 6 September 2004
Reviewer's Note: Download the beta version


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TypePad
"TypePad is a powerful, hosted weblogging service that gives users the richest set of features to immediately share and publish information -- like travel logs, journals and digital scrapbooks -- on the Web. TypePad lets people communicate, publicly or privately, with the audience of their choosing."
Added: 9 May 2004
Reviewer's Note: 30-day free trial. Also contains moblogging functionality


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Userplane AV Blogger
"Userplane's Audio & Video Blogger service is an easy-to-use system allowing the creation of audio and video recorded messages for use in blogs, websites and email."
Added: 22 November 2004
Reviewer's Note: The Userplane AV Recorder application will automatically detect your camera and microphone, and allow you to record up to a 10 minute recording. Each recording is streamed from the Userplane servers, and can be copy-and-pasted into your web media.


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Waypath
"Waypath provides new ways to explore the rich content of weblogs, using text analysis techniques pioneered by Think Tank 23."
Added: 27 July 2004
Reviewer's Note: Waypath makes available a number of exciting projects for mining the ever-growing and broadly based world of weblogs.


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w.bloggar
"The best interface between you and your blogs"
Updated: 23 January 2005
Reviewer's Note: Freeware


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Web Crossing
"Web Crossing is simply the best blog server you'll find. With support for private categories, optional user comments, teasers, spellcheck, fast indexed search, photo blogging, drafts, and a unique timed-release feature, you won't find a more full-featured weblog tool. Besides all of that, you'll get access controls, RSS feeds by category, email subscriptions, and support for Metaweblog and Blogger APIs so you can post from your favorite blog client. Long known for it's award-winning discussion tools, Web Crossing has dozens of other plug-ins - just turn them on. "
Added: 1 February 2005
Reviewer's Note: Web Crossing is available as a hosted service, or as licensed software running on your equipment.


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Weblogs4schools
"As a part of its Weblogs4Schools initiative, ICT4Schools will help schools and other organisations with the introduction and efficient use of weblogs under an individualised domain name. Set up by Peter Ford, who is responsible for www.schoolblogs.com
Reviewer's Note:"The cost for primary schools is GBP 200 per year for up to 100 weblogs hosted under a common domain name ... You simply create them as you need them."


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Wordpress
"WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. What a mouthful. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it."
Updated: 12 January 2004
Reviewer's Note: Very popular open source blogging software