Will Richardson

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Enter Apple

September 29, 2003 By Will Richardson

iBlog is Apple’s entry into the Web logging world, and we know Microsoft isn’t far behind. They look pretty standard, more MT than anything else. I apologize that I can’t remember who it was, but someone was musing on the effect this will have on other blogging systems out there, specifically Radio. I don’t claim to be as up on MT or TypePad or some of the others as I should be (like I even have time for this space…) but wouldn’t it seem that most primarily single paged Web logging will be under the domains of the big companies out there within the next five years? I know there will always be open source alternatives, but I think for most of the billions of people out there who still don’t even know what a Web log is, Microsoft and Apple will be their first introduction. And you know what that means.

Personally, I’ve been feeling lately like UserLand is missing an opportunity. The more I get my elbows dirty with Manila, the more I like it despite its quirks. I’ve finally gotten to understand that the power of the software sets it apart from most other Web logging apps out there. Thing is, no one else at my school sees it, yet. It’s taken me two years to wrap my brain around just how extensive the effects of a CMS like this could be here. Showing that to others and convincing them of same is no doubt going to be like pulling a cement mixer up a steep hill. Molecules at a time. But we’re all moving in that direction, I think, and it seems like medium sized districts who are looking for a fairly inexpensive way to move operations online, facilitate distance learning, and communicate more effectively with their publics (among other things) would be chomping at the bit to get something like this working.

Filed Under: General, Weblog Tech

Comments

  1. Mark Millard says

    September 29, 2003 at 8:12 am

    iBlog is not Apple’s entry into the web logging world. It is a product of Lifli Software (http://www.lifli.com/index.htm).

  2. Jason Whong says

    September 29, 2003 at 9:49 am

    Mark is correct. This is not Apple software.

  3. stevej@apple.com says

    September 29, 2003 at 9:56 am

    File this away under ‘S’ for Shit for brains.

  4. Will R. says

    September 29, 2003 at 10:00 am

    Ok…I stand corrected…kind of. Surely Lifli has Apple’s blessing to brand it’s site just like Apple’s (except for the logo.) I think it’s pretty safe to say that if it’s not Apple software yet, it will be soon.

  5. Yuta says

    September 29, 2003 at 10:06 am

    Well, I wouldn’t say that they have Apple’s blessing… I think it’s more like Lifli’s webmaster liked Apple’s style and copied it. Were Apple to give their blessing, wouldn’t you think they’d give their templates to Lifli, thereby keeping the quality high? Lifli’s copy is just ok… an obvious rip-off.

  6. stevej@apple.com says

    September 29, 2003 at 10:34 am

    “I think it’s pretty safe to say that if it’s not Apple software yet, it will be soon.”

    If you told me it was safe to cross the road I’d ask for a second opinion.

  7. Woz says

    September 29, 2003 at 1:17 pm

    You couldn’t tell lifli.com was a third-party site and not Apple, and you mispunctuated your use of the word “its” in paragraph 2. What happened to the “education” part of this site?

  8. Jonathan Ives says

    September 29, 2003 at 1:32 pm

    …Loads of sites copy apple.com’s layout, but this was obvious enough, even the URL’s are clearly not Apple’s, so bad analysis on Willy’s part.

    And Apple doesn’t need to give any blessing to 3rd party developers to emulate the iApp look and feel, they’re explicitly recommending 3rd party developers to adopt Mac OS X interface guidelines.

    A great blogger tool is Kung Log. Mosey over to macupdate.com, versiontracker.com or Apple’s own Mac OS X software download section, spot a search box and type “blog”, you’ll see that Mac bloggers have a lot of choice.

  9. Prof Grammar says

    September 29, 2003 at 1:48 pm

    Will writes:

    …more I like it despite it’s quirks…

    and in another place he wrote

    …Surely Lifli has Apple’s blessing to brand it’s site just like Apple’s…

    ======
    Will!

    Take note. “It’s” mean “it is” or “it has”

    It’s a contraction, not a possessive!

    There are perl scripts and other tools on the ‘net to help keep your blogs free of egregious “it’s” violations.

    Class dismissed.

  10. Will R. says

    September 29, 2003 at 2:40 pm

    Ok…”it’s” been corrected. I hope similar suggestions for corrections were sent to macsurfer.com who originally attributed my entry to Salon and thus sent a ton of people my way. (I doubt many would have bothered to click on “weblogg-ed,” but if Salon says it…) Hopefully most of the rest weren’t so put out by my grammatical error and by my obvious inability to discern that the iBlog wasn’t made by the same company that makes the iPod, iPhoto, and iDon’tknowwhatelse. Sheesh…guess I hit a nerve.

  11. Nancy says

    September 29, 2003 at 4:39 pm

    Sheesh is right – people sure get a bit nasty about some things only to miss the bigger picture. Oh, BTW Prof Grammar — you wrote: “Take note. ‘It’s’ mean ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ but I think you mean “means” with an “s” not “mean.” Oops! I don’t mean to be mean about it (tee hee)!
    Will, as always, thanks for making me think “wow” at the power of blogging to create dialogue!

  12. Roland Tanglao says

    September 30, 2003 at 1:35 pm

    Yes, I keep hoping that UserLand will miraculously announce at BloggerCon a new CEO who ‘s good at marketing and sales and that they hire a couple of more programmers.

    Otherwise there’s still lots of uncertainty. Despite that, we keep using Manila because it rocks and there’s nobody out there (yet!) who rocks harder!

  13. Tim Merritt says

    October 1, 2003 at 8:56 am

    Userland’s support is not very good for *users*. It’s okay for *developers*, but for Frontier/Manila education customers, Userland needs tech writers to write clear manuals and a set of installation guidelines aimed at the particular needs of educators: privacy of the students, controlling access to their comments and membershipt, etc. Edublogging is, right now, an experiment that I firmly believe will rapidly become standard procedure. That makes it a potentially very big market for them… it’s just waiting for them to address it.

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