Google Blogger

Google Blogger is a free publishing platform run by Google. It is designed to be easy to use so writers can upload content to their blogs via email, Google Plus and various apps and programs.

Google Blogger, originally called Blogger, was acquired by Google in 2003. The publishing service facilitates the creation of blogs, or informal online discussion sites. Users can sign up for a maximum of 100 blogs per account and customize those blogs with pre-designed templates. Content is hosted on Google’s servers, and the service is available in 60 languages. Although its popularity in the United States has waned somewhat, Google Blogger has a large international user base and is popular in countries such as Indonesia, India and Brazil.

Users control aspects of Google Blogger through the program's dashboard. The overview of the dashboard shows the blog's activity, news from Google or any updates to the program. Writers manage a particular blog by clicking the blog title, and from there, they create new posts.

Google Blogger users can receive a free blogspot.com domain, or they can pay extra to buy a custom domain name. The text editor is simple, and the software does not use JavaScript. Visitors to Google Blogger websites can view the content from a desktop or mobile platform. The Google Blogger service makes money through advertising revenue.

Google Blogger is integrated with other Google tools, such as AdSense and Analytics. Users are able to make money through their own Google Blogger sites by using a Google AdSense account. Users sign up for an AdSense account separately, and then link the advertisements to individual blogs. Not all blogs may qualify for advertisements, so users should double-check the eligibility checklist. Users can also view detailed information about their blog’s audience by using Google’s data analytics platform, Google Analytics.

Blogger was started in 1999 by Pyra Labs. At the time, it was one of the first blog-publishing tools on the internet. The tech startup was founded by Evan Williams, one of the co-founders of Twitter, and Meg Hourihan, one of the co-founders of Kinja. Blogger enabled multiple users to create time-stamped posts to the same account.

Google acquired Blogger in 2003 when the tech giant bought Pyra Labs for undisclosed terms. As Google Blogger, the service’s premium features were now free. The blog publisher also underwent a major redesign.