Why Blogger is Google's Sleeping Giant

Or Why Yahoo's User Generated Content Vision Already Exists at Google

When analysts go down Google's list of cool properties, it goes something like this:

1. Search. Brilliant service for just about everything you want it to do. Cash cow too.
2. Youtube. The kids like it. Can google sell ads in front of videos?
3. Adsense. Also brilliant.
4. Everything Else, that App stuff that has something to do with Microsoft
5. Those weird lab things.
6. Blogger. Do they own blogger?

But when I look at Blogger, I see something that Google could develop into a celebration of first-amendment, crafty ingenuity and ideas. And a niche content and advertising engine just as big and important as the Youtube franchise.

Blogger is a platform that can do just about everything you could want to do to get your voice out there for the world to hear. Witness a sampling of how some people are using blogger:

1. This very blog that I write. It is one guy's sometimes opinionated take on things that interest him: work, cars, politics, music, architecture, mass-media, and a smattering of other things. I write this for my friends to keep track of stuff, and to refine ideas for use in other places like my job. Random and advertising free.

2. Trashy Celebrity Gossip Site pinkisthenewblog. This guy (from Michigan?) has made a name for himself writing catty captions on celebrity paparazzi photos, and he does it 10 times more entertainingly than EntertainmentTonightAccessHollywoodPeopleUs. Not only that, but he's been able to make enough money from advertising and to make what I would speculate is a pretty decent living. This is niche publishing. It can and is working for every possible interest that is out there, and blogger is powering it.

3. Bicycle Design. Another example of niche publishing-- watch out bicycling magazine, this site is stealing advertising from you by being more focused, more niche.

4. Endless political blogs, like this one.

5. Vacation Blogs, the 21st Century Postcard. A lot of friends have done this.

And on and on.

But Most People Don't Know About Blogger

Blogger needs to nurture their brand and identity. To start with, detach a bit from the Google Orb. Start by moving the team to San Francisco and hiring me (and my friend Matt Peake too). Then, position it to customers much more directly. Blogger is the place you go for to express your passions, whether they be political, recreational or celebrity-focused (or everything else).

Tell me a story! Do something bigger than what youtube is doing for the 2008 presidential election--hire someone like Don Hewitt to create a program to make a difference in the political dialog using the blogger audience. Find someone internally to be the face/ spokesperson of blogger long term. Make sure they're opinionated.

Make the great blogger tools easier to use! Bubble up those customization capabilities a bit more, tear down some of the walls that seem to be so arbitrarily placed, make it more twiki. (I still for the life of me have no idea how to customize my header with an image-- and I'd consider myself a power user). And integrate the stellar Google platforms more effectively: youtube, adsense, jotspot, checkout, etc.

Finally, help me organize the world of content that's coming out of blogger. Right now, the assumption is that blogger is only for people who create content. Everyone else still finds content using google search. This is good, but not great. Great would be a way for me to discover compelling, quality content that interests me. This would be a very solid alternative from Google for the Facebook and Yahoo audiences.