Are you looking for a hosting services which allows you to do virtually anything at no cost? Welcome to Blogger.
Want to include third party javascripts and other code bits and pieces, such as widgets (blogger calls them gadgets)? Say hi to Blogger.
You don't want the look of a blog? Well, strip all comment functions, the dates and author infos, and you are nearly there.
Add a menu which helps users to get to specific pages (or page selections). At this point though, Blogger needs to be tweaked and you'll need to dig a bit deeper into the workings behind Blogger. But it really is not as complicated as it seems. That's what this site is for :-)
Want to get your site pretty? Well there are tons of sites which list blogger templates. And if you still want more, you can get hands on by changing / replacing the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and the HTML of the site. Blogger has a few conventions and rules which help Google web publishing platform to interpret what you want.
Of course you can add your own domain name. And you can let users add and edit content through the blogger post and edit interface, you have a few basic access levels.
If you want a more fancy interface why not using Google Apps and within your Apps domain Google Docs to manage the web content. There are a few tricks and workarounds because the integration of blogger and Google Apps is not where it should or will be. Though despite some limitations, the power is already impressive.
If you add all those features and capabilities as well as the technically surprising liberal conditions, there are no real competing serviecs. Wordpress.com may be easier to setup and run at first, but as soon as you want to customize your site / blog, you run into restricitions, such as javascript. of course, if you manage your own hosting, you can use hundreds of publishing platforms, many if not most of them open source and therefore free. Though if you don't want any operating system and network management, those services tend not to be free. Blogger is. And you can even use Google Ads to make money, if you want.
We will transform slowly this site into a classic "menu driven" website. You will experience a new form of a CMS powered by Blogger with a lot of articles that will help you to do the same. Watch this space :-)
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