MarsEdit – the early review

This feels so wrong. So very wrong. Also a bit meta. I’m reviewing MarsEdit, a blogging editor for OS X, but I’m reviewing it for MacNN.com. I’ll tell you now that I already like this software enough that I’ll be recommending it on The Blank Screen too.

But the way of these things is that of course I review it first on MacNN and then when that’s live, I’ll point you at it from here.

Except.

Not only do I need to test out MarsEdit, I also need some screenshots. So unless all my testing so far has somehow been mistaken and this post vanishes into the ether, you’re looking at a test post. Goes on a bit, doesn’t it? What’s wrong with “testing 1, 2, 3”? Standards. It’s about standards.

But while I’ve got you, let me say that MarsEdit is for writing and editing your blog posts and what I think is best about it is that it is somehow just an enjoyable thing to type into. Officially, sensibly, the best thing about it is how readily you can add text, images, video and audio into your posts – and how those posts can be across any number of different blogs that you run.

How to stop anyone believing you

Microsoft is reportedly/allegedly paying bloggers to write favourable prices about Internet Explorer. As part of the deal, you also tweet with the hashtag #IEbloggers.

Go take a look: click or tap on that hashtag and you’ll go to a twitter search that returns a lot of tweets. Deliciously, by far the majority are from people mocking Microsoft (and innocently asking if they’ll still get paid).

But every now and again there is a real one. A genuine one. Well, a tweet that isn’t mocking and is promoting Internet Explorer.

Doubtlessly, some of them are true in the sense that the tweet writer really does like IE. But you can’t help it: now you know Microsoft is paying and now you see so many others ridiculing it, everyone who praises IE looks caught.

No one I’m following has done this or I’d be un-following. Wouldn’t you?