A blog is popular writing format that is used on personal and organization websites to feature material that is archived for future reference when new material is presented. A blog, short for weblog may take the form of a log or diary, or simply be a running series of thematically linked articles, or commentary on topics of interest to the blogger. Blogger™, developed by Pyra Labs, which was subsequently bought by Google, is a free blogging software, and like many free blogging application, one accesses the software by creating a Blogger™ account.
The first step one should take in creating a Blogger™ account is reading and accepting the Blogger™ terms of service (TOS), the list of rights, responsibilities, and rules that a user takes in signing up for an account. It is also important, as the Blogger™ TOS notes, to read and agree to the Google Terms of Service, the Google Privacy Policy, and the Blogger™ Content Policy.
The next step in creating a Blogger™ account may involve a choice. One can either create a Google account to use with Blogger™, and other Google services, if desired. Alternatively, one can using an existing Google account. It doesn’t matter what the Google account has been previously associated with — whether Gmail, Google Groups, or Orkut, for example — it can be used a Blogger™ account. The key is to think ahead about which services one wants to have associated with each site, and whether there are any one wants to keep separate. Reasons for doing so could be the ease of separating business communications from personal communications, for example.
If the would-be blogger has a Google account, he or she can sign in, using email as the username and the appropriate password and move right along to creating a blog. To create a Google account, one needs to fill out a web form. The form requires an existing email address, a password, the blogger’s choice of a display name that will be used to sign blog posts, and the blogger’s birthdate. One can opt-in to receive information about the blog, including notification of new features, and hints and tips, and one must indicate that one has accepted the terms of service and type a nonsense word as verification that a human, not a bot, is completing the form. Pressing the ‘CONTINUE’ button will take one to a page to name one’s blog, and then to choose a template.