I must say that Xanga as a blogging tool for the masses has proven itself to be simple and accessible enough so that pretty much anyone can start blogging with very minimal effort. Of course, there are some limitations to Xanga which are somewhat annoying, such as limiting Xanga users to subscribe only to other Xanga users or not providing notification to follow-up comments (besides the blog author). Imagine allowing Xanga users to “subscribe” to non-Xanga blogs (which could essentially be done through RSS feeds). Xanga’s usefulness and scope would no longer limited to its own user base but could encompass more of the blogging community as a whole. I just don’t get why Xanga hasn’t done more to develop their feature set and overall usability.

Then again, it may be that by its nature, Xanga is geared more towards a particular user segment who is comfortable with its feature set and doesn’t see them as limitations, as the rest of geekdom might (we prefer to be called ‘powerusers’). And of course, there’s always the tech bubble suspicion that Xanga is just sitting on their duffs waiting for their userbase to grow large enough for them to become an acquisition target, which seems like a rather lazy way to go, but may prove profitable in the end.

Regardless, I was initially amused and now even more encouraged to see so many people using Xanga in a very real and personally relevant way. Keep blogging, and let the tools (and geeks) sort themselves out.