I think that the Blogs Today site is quite new, but it looks interesting.

It is traditional, possibly even mandatory, for WordPress users to look down their noses a bit at a set-up which is free, very easy to use and under the ownership of a newspaper company, but it does have a lot going for it.

For a start, it is extremely easy to get registered. Even easier than getting set up on Blogger. Just give a user name and away you go. The posting method is with a very user-friendly WYSIWYG window, although the purists can change to a plain text version and put their own HTML tags.

There is plenty to not like about it – the lack of control over all the links to other Blogs Today blogs in the sidebar and lack of customisation generally. Maybe these are not such an issue to newcomers on the principle of not missing what you have never had.

The way it is set up on a geographical basis, to correspond with the areas of Johnston Press papers presumably, could help to get local bloggers in touch with each other. The ownership of the whole thing by Johnston Press is a lot more visible than, say, Murdoch’s ownership of MySpace which would put off a lot of established bloggers.

I don’t think it is going to tempt users of WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, MySpace or whatever to move, but I do think it will encourage more people to get involved. It is extremely easy to get started with it.

I have set up an account myself, but really just to provide a link here, and for established bloggers that is where its use may be felt the most, especially those with a strong local presence like the many councillor blogs on B4L: if your local JP newspaper pushes it you could end up with a group of local bloggers all interacting with each other, but unaware of your own work.