TDavid notices that my blog sometimes redirects to WordPress.com. Yes, I notice that too.
WordPress.com is in beta. It is a new service. It’s run by 21-year-old Matt Mullenweg and a band of others. I’m sure it’s going to have some rough patches. I note that Six Apart is going through a rough patch of its own and it is older and better funded than WordPress.
Yes, I’m a guinea pig. Lots of people want to know why I don’t go on my own server and do all that. My coworkers at Microsoft are even offering to give me server rack space and help me do a super dooper blog.
The thing is, I know that 99% of people who blog will do so on hosted services. Most people will not see the value in setting up their own server, or co-locating it. In fact, most businesses won’t do that. Look at the popularity of TypePad.
But, I am learning there are severe disadvantages to going with a hosted solution. It’ll be interesting to see if WordPress and TypePad overcome these disadvantages. If they do they’ll see robust businesses build up around them. If not, there’ll be companies like Blogmatrix, What Counts, or Telligent who’ll be happy to jump in and get you setup with your own blog server.
