Google and Microsoft make blogging easier

Google and Microsoft are improving the functionality and ease of use of their blogging tools

Today (15 August) Microsoft released a beta version of Live Writer, its Windows blogging software aimed at users with few or no web authoring skills. Launching it in a blog post, JJ Allaire, a Microsoft blogger, said, “The first thing to notice about Writer is that it enables true wysiwyg blog authoring. You can now author your post and know exactly what it will look like before you publish it.”

Although HTML skills are not necessary, Writer also lets the user employ other views including HTML source-code editing and web preview mode. Other features such as simple click-and-add photo and map publishing are complemented by a software development kit (SDK), which lets developers publish additional content types, such as embedded video and audio players.

Also this week, Google started to test an upgraded version of its Blogger service. New features include the ability to add labels to entries, and drag and drop layout changes, and the ability to restrict or allow access to the site for particular users.

A tour of all the new features is available on the Blogger blog site.