Earlier this week I opened my trusty Wordpress blog creation software and saw news that a new sidebar plugin had been released that makes it easier to arrange items in the sidebar of my blog page. Then yesterday I came across the news that TypePad has introduced their own set of Widgets for their blogging platform.

Both of these developments are good news for current and prospective bloggers.

For those of you not in the know, a widget is a name for a piece of functionality that can be added to a website in a very simple manner, like pointing and clicking or dragging and dropping and item on a page. The introduction of these new Widgets in both Wordpress and TypePad means that users will have to spend less time editing their blog templates to get them right. Which means that they can spend more time on writing about their passion.

These new developments are the continuation of a trend that has been going on for a while now. The makers of blog creation software are doing their best to make it easier to start and maintain your blog. Advancements in the last few years have included WYSIWYG text editors ala Microsoft Word. And most blogging platforms have added robust collections of templates that allow users to greatly differ the look and feel of their blogs. Check out the WordPress Style Browser to see an example of the options available for WordPress. Hosted blog services like Blogger, WordPress.com and TypePad make updating your template a snap.

Independent developers help make the situation rosier by creating their own free Widgets and enhancements that you can use with these services. The bottom line for the user is that fact that you don’t need any kind of programming knowledge to get a blog up and running with a look and feel that suits your tastes. That’s great news, especially for businesses that have a small web development budget.

My prediction is that blogging will only become a simpler. So if you’ve been waiting on starting a blog due to technical worries, now might be the time to give one of the services mentioned here a try.

[tags]Social Media, Blogging, Wordpress, TypePad, Widgets[/tags]