Why Do You Blog? Survey Results & Gadget Comparison

The results are in...

Are you surprised at the results?  I find them very interesting.  More people seek to inform yet a close second is to personally explore the author's thoughts.  I would have expected some responses for "to entertain my audience" and "to connect with like-minded folks."  No one chose to fill in the blank under "other."

How do the gadgets compare?
In this poll, I used the POWr Poll gadget.  In the previous poll, I used Blogger's Poll gadget.  Each has benefits and weaknesses.

With the Blogger gadget, respondents can choose multiple answers.  There are several different poll options in POWr Poll that are not available in Blogger, (see right), but none allow multiple answers to be tabulated separately.  During our discussion forum, you wished you could choose 2 or 3 answers.  I agree!

The radio poll, which I used, only allows one answer.  If you choose multiple checkboxes, all of the responses are grouped together.  For example "To inform my audience, to entertain my audience, Because its required for this class."  Only responses with that exact mix will tabulate together.  Blogger does not have an option for respondents to type in a response for "other."

Blogger does not allow the author to edit the poll once the first response has been tallied.  POWr Poll allows editing at any time.  In addition, formatting of the poll can be personalized in POWr Poll, including: font size, type, and color; background.

When my first responses came into POWr  Poll, the responses were presented in both a table form, downloadable as a .cvs, and in pie graph.  However, the pie graph view was not available when I closed the poll.  Blogger only allowed the responses to be viewed in the blog itself.  Readers can see their cumulative responses immediately, a feature not available in POWr Poll.

Blogger results disappear when the poll is taken down, whereas POWrPoll is available in a separate website and can be accessed indefinitely, as you post and remove numerous polls.

One cool feature of POWr poll is the chat feature.  While I was designing the poll, a chat box opened from the company asking if I needed help.  I asked about the multiple checkboxes issue, and the operator confirmed the situation I described above.  I like having help readily available via chat.

Overall, I prefer POWr Poll but there are some glitches that they need to address.  If you have another poll gadget for blogs that you prefer, please share with us.