I’m experimenting with some dedicated blogging software called ecto. This blog is run using Typepad which has a browser interface for posting and formatting the site. ecto is a dedicated application, which enables you to draft posts even when offline e.g. on a plane. It also seems to have some more granular control over inserting Technorati tags, like the ones just below.
Plus is has some pretty impressive looking integration with iPhoto, iTunes and Amazon, which I’m yet to test out. ecto runs on a Mac (and Windows) and also integrates into NetNewsWire, so you can blog items direct from the reader. I had tried Rachero Software’s own blogging engine MarsEdit, but found it a bit limiting. One of the advantages of ecto for me is that you can easily cross post entries to different blogs which isn’t simple with a browser interface.
It’s interesting to see how dedicated blogging and RSS software is becoming more sophisticated and more integrated. I expect podcasting and video blogging functionality will go the same way so you have a full communications dashboard for receiving and broadcasting information.
UPDATE – ecto has problems with inserting links. It seems to insert my blog’s URL in front of the link address. I had this trouble with Dennis’ Bazaarz link, and again just now with a couple of the links in this post.