TDavid notices that WordPress.com sometimes redirects

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.

Published by

Robert Scoble

As Startup Liaison for Rackspace, the Open Cloud Computing Company, Scoble travels the world looking for what's happening on the bleeding edge of technology for Rackspace's startup program. He's interviewed thousands of executives and technology innovators and reports what he learns in books ("The Age of Context," a book coauthored with Forbes author Shel Israel, has been released at http://amzn.to/AgeOfContext ), YouTube, and many social media sites where he's followed by millions of people. Best place to watch me is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RobertScoble

Comments

  1. Blog Hosting: the Good, Bad and the Ugly

    The Scobleizer shares problems he’s been having with WordPress hosting and laments the benefits and tribulations of 3rd party hosting, thanks to a heads-up from Blog Bloke’s ole bud TDavid.

    Heck, there’s always Blogger fellas. 😉

  4. I’m having the exact same problem, except that I’ve had it from day one. I’ve never seen my blog! :( Don’t know how I can flag it with the site admin either, as I can’t get to my blog so I can’t send feedback. Tried replying to my welcome email, but it bounced. Erm, anyone else have any other ideas? Hope you don’t consider this a threadjack! :(

  5. I’m having the exact same problem, except that I’ve had it from day one. I’ve never seen my blog! :( Don’t know how I can flag it with the site admin either, as I can’t get to my blog so I can’t send feedback. Tried replying to my welcome email, but it bounced. Erm, anyone else have any other ideas? Hope you don’t consider this a threadjack! :(