So I’ve been talking off and on for the past few weeks to all the folks who are or were behind Pyra and Blogger, and despite their troubles, I have to say I really envy them. Because today I saw that I got a nice link from a young woman named Rebecca. She’s quite articulate and has an interesting site, certainly more interesting than mine would have been at 17, I think.

And I can’t help but think that a big part of the reason she’s got a site, or at least a big part of the reason that it’s frequently updated, is because all those good people made Blogger and made Pyra and made a mess and made themselves angry and upset somedays and made themselves ecstatic and jubilant somedays and made a positive nuisance of themselves pretty much all the time.

I had a company for 7 years once. And while I didn’t have the torturous misfortune to have hundreds of people dissect and analyze my every mistake when it sputtered out and died, I also never had the pleasure of giving a worldwide voice to the thoughts of an articulate high schooler.

I’ve said it before, and probably thought the sappier versions of this idea dozens more times, but it’s an amazing thing they have accomplished. I wish that all I had done to build my company had accomplished one tenth as much. It amazes me that the tools they made helped my good friend Jon make a blog of his own even though he didn’t know a lick of HTML a week ago. It amazes me that people I’ve never met have helped me learn more about a friend I’ve had for years.

It’s just cool, dammit. A cool thing. Cool.

Cool.