The itch to write

As you may have noticed, blog.com is undergoing intensive care, surgery. A face lift in some ways...

And we want you to take part in... rummage round in your head for a couple of clever words, add them together and presto! Come up with astounding taglines we'll all love.

Because blog.com is not our site but yours, we want you to be an active part of it, and take decisions that'll affect us all. Therefore, at blog.com, we decided to organize a tagline competition starting today, and until the 31^st of May '05. We'd like you to think of a phrase that you believe best reflects the site's spirit, its intentions, its goals, your desires...

For example : Blog.com, the itch to write...

How to participate ? It's easy, just drop in your tagline(s) as comments to this post. Don't forget to add your email and blog URL, otherwise we won't be able to reach you, should you win.

And what's in it for the bargain ? The winner will be awarded a platinum blog account for a lifetime.

And remember, the more the merrier, so please feel free to drop in on us and leave your thoughts... In some ways it's a blog for your thoughts.

So, let's recap :

• May participate any blog.com user
• The contest is open from May 19^th to May 31^st 2005
• The contest is free
• The winner will be awarded a lifetime blog.com platinum account... and the honor of having his tagline used !

Good luck !

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Believe it or not, travelling is hard work. It's not just about tourism, relaxation and leisure. It's a whole adventure per se and moreover it's work.
Don't take my word for it, look it up in the Merriam Webster dictionary (www.m-w.com). The verb Travel comes from the French Travailler (to work) which itself comes from the latin tripaliare "to torture".
Travelling musn't have been such a pleasant experience back then. Of course they didn't enjoy the comfort we take for granted nowadays. The roads were unsafe, rides in XIX^th c. stagecoaches not so smooth (Michelin wasn't round yet), and for the poorer, walking was a very slow alternative.
In the last decade, the web has brought us a new dimension in terms of travelling. Brand new means of visiting far away places. The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC is only a few clicks whereas the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam can be e-toured right here. Limits have been pushed off.
And of course, blogs are the door to "private" museums, our lives, our experiences, our tastes, or distastes. A blend of colors, a whirl of feelings. And all this right here at blog.com...

Great blog name, clearly a great start. Although we do use blogs as private bulletin boards to coordinate work, here at blog.com we're quite late at the public blog game. This medium has all the potential to be a great link between us and our customers, so let's make it happen.

I hope to make this space a peering spot into what we're doing, where blog.com is going. Right now, we're doing some heavy prep work. The software platform needs work to sustain the next growth phase -- feature and performance-wise. We're doing the polishing and reworking needed for that jump. We're also picking up steam, growing the development team, and enduring the growing pains that come with that. Expect great stuff coming out soon!

We're just a few weeks shy of our first anniversary here at Blog.com and suddenly things have sparked up. We've entered the big Spring cleaning process. Time to dust off the design, to grope about the attic, air the house, repaint the walls and get some new bright ideas out !

As I was on my way to work today, it felt like a positive day, sunshine was generously pouring on the city center, and that alone made it a special day. And indeed it was ! At work, I perused through Blog.com and read about others' lives – your lives – shared your laughs, your problems too. I learned about Jacky and her frightened kitten, and also peeped at some awesome pics Janine took in Asia.

Hopping from blog to blog is like travelling at the speed of clicks. No bags to check, no late planes, no jet lag... From the freedom and the comfort of your home, or your office, welcome to your world, welcome to our world !