Chicago Sun Times on TypePad

Andy Innatko of the Chicago Sun Times reviewed Six Apart’s TypePad offering yesterday. The article seems to be a bit too slanted in Six Apart’s favor. The article makes many mentions of TypePad as a place for real publishing, away from the noise of LiveJournal or Blogger.

A Blogger or LiveJournal blog limits you to basic, straightforward blogging and, worse, every Blogger or LiveJournal blog looks more or less alike.

Blogger and TypePad both allow template selection. Both services allow you to select from a template library. Both allow for custom styles.

Disseminating news and fostering discussion about the potential impact of casino gambling on your community is hard enough. When the blog you’ve created as a one-stop clearinghouse is indistinguishable from the one that a 12-year-old girl uses to complain about how her Mom totally won’t let her get her belly button pierced, you’re just making more work for yourself.

The assumption is that 12-year-old cannot afford to pay for TypePad. The admission price helps keep the area free of casual weblogs, but a 12-year-old can use a weblog account setup by a parent in the same way American Online allows multiple users for their service.

MovableType is steadily becoming the Microsoft Office of blogging software: a standard synonymous with power and features that everyone’s eager to support.

Microsoft repositioned Office as a platform instead of a pure software package. Six Apart is moving in the same direction with the Professional Network and should fire up the community once again.