Top 5 Blogging Platforms
Each Friday we choose a Lunchtime Poll topic to get a sense of how Mashable readers feel about the chosen topic of the week. There was a clear winner in this poll who smashed everyone else: Wordpress. Both hosted and self-hosted, Mashable readers loved the WP platform about 7 times more than the number two platform, which was perhaps surprisingly the relatively old school Blogger, followed by Posterous, Tumblr and then Live Journal. [Barb Dybwad @ Mashable]
As an extremely satisfied Wordpress user I’m not surprised that it came out on top (regardless of the fact that its a pretty informal poll), but it is interesting to know what else is highly regarded (or just plain ole regarded) out in the blogosphere. I don’t really see myself using another blogging platform other than the aforementioned Wordpress in the foreseeable future (even if they started charging for it), but it is useful to know what other people regard as viable blog alternatives.
Filed Under Blogging
Sumo Paint Image Editor
Sumo Paint is a feature packed photo editing and painting application (similar to Photoshop) that works right in your web browser. It can be used in Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems with the only requirement being that Flash is installed on your computer. It can be used without registration, but in order to take full advantage of all the features of the services/tools, you’ll need to register for an account.
Sumo Paint is also backed by its own community with over 100 000 registered members from all courners of the world, that lets you create, share, remix, explore, improve your skills, comment, rate and fave the artwork of its members.
Image editing tools include layer support, image adjustment tools (levels, color balance, and so on), blending options, layer effects (such as shadows, glows, and bevels), filters (including distortion effects, sharpening, and blur), a magic wand, and tools to transform and rotate layers, lasso selections, clone sections, draw, paint, add text and more. If you’ve used Photoshop or Photoshop clones then you’ll feel at home.
Filed Under Web Apps
Google Adwords Editor
Adwords Editor is a free Google application (for Mac or Windows operating systems) that allows you to manage your ad campaigns from your desktop without a browser. Work offline, upload your changes, download your account(s) and update your campaigns with powerful editing tools. One of the best things about this software is that you can make bulk changes (such as updating bids or adding keywords) in just a few steps, which came in very handy for me recently as I needed to change from “broad matching” to “phrase matching”, which would have been a long process but thanks to Adwords Editor I didn’t have to go and change each keyword phrase one by one.
Filed Under Software
StatPress Reloaded
StatPress Reloaded displays real time statistics about your Wordpress blog, collecting information about visitors, spiders, search keywords, feeds, operating systems, browsers and more. You can see visitor actions while they’re browsing your site or check which are the preferred pages, posts and categories. Statistics can be viewed in detail or summarized, and you can also display stats in the sidebar via a widget.
In my little world statistics are extremely important, and using StatPress just makes it way to easy to see how my blogs are performing all in the comfort of the dashboard. Another thing I like about this plugin is that it only keeps track of whats happening on my Wordpress powered websites, so I don’t have to sort through log files separating stats from non Wordpress sections, saving loads of precious time (precious to me that is).
Filed Under Blogging
