New layout and new CMS/blog engine for NRG TechView

You may have noticed a slight change in the layout of the site. For many years, the NRG site was hosted by the Small Business group at Yahoo! The original content management system was based off of an integrated (that is, built-in component of the YSB package) Movable Type 3.x instance. However, Yahoo! has chosen not to upgrade its MT CMS/blog software to the 4.x code base (NRG and other YSB customers have been waiting patiently for years). Thus, unless I felt like maintaining it myself or paying for someone to babysit NRG's own up-to-date instance of MT 4.x -- and I don't -- it became increasingly unbearable to remain on that antiquated system. Actually, it became impossible.

Since I don't feel like making another platform shift in the near future and I don't feel like spending money for systems when I don't have to, the choice came down to leveraging the no-cost WordPress or Google Blogger services. If you've ever evaluated these offerings, you know the pros and cons of both of these cloud-based systems. For example, the WordPress community seems much more dynamic and responsive than the faceless Blogger dev team, and as a result the WordPress CMS/blog service feels fresher than Blogger, where simple changes, such as adding Labels (Categories), can seemingly take ages. However, Blogger, being a Google property, makes it especially easy to integrate the service with free Google tools (Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, etc.) as well as Google AdSense advertising modules. In addition, Goggle allows more customization at no cost than the free WordPress offering. In the end, I choose Blogger, but going with WordPress would have been fine, too. That said, selecting either solution represents an excellent, low-cost, scalable investment with the benefit of near 100% outsourced CMS/blog management and no monthly fees.

So stay tuned for more on the transition from a content perspective. I will be making sure older content is shifted over to the new CMS/blog, but it will take time. In addition, some posts that were finished but never made it on the previous site will show up in the coming weeks (yes, the MT instance became that bad!). And expect more content, too. It's just that much easier to publish now.

Thanks, as always, for taking the time to read and comment.