Blogger, the Web log creation site owned by Goggle, is getting ride of its paid version and folding the premium functions into its free service, CNET reports.
In February Google bought Pyra Labs, the company behind Blogger. The acquisition was meant to allow Google to leapfrog into the growing Web logging — or “blogging” –market.
Blogger Pro originally cost subscribers a US$35 annual fee. The fee was a financial necessity at one point, but is no longer, according to CNET.
“Pro subscribers helped keep us going as a struggling start-up, when servers and bandwidth were at an extreme premium,” Blogger co-founder Evan Williams wrote in an e-mail to subscribers. “We wanted to keep basic Blogger free, but we needed to start charging in order to keep the lights on …Today, as you may know, Blogger ‘s situation is much different. For one thing, we’re part of Google. Google has lots of computers and bandwidth. And Google believes blogs are important and good for the Web.”
Google said it would give Blogger Pro subscribers either a $24 Blogger sweatshirt or a prorated cash refund through Oct. 1. The former subscription-only services will be rolled out in the free version “in the next few days.”