Try Vox

Wish to blog safely? Try Vox. It's free and you can keep it really private. Use its privacy settings to control who reads your blog. You can make sure it's read only by your family and friends, says the New Times York Times.

Yes, one can password-protect almost every other kind of blog, from Blogger to WordPress. But Vox gives you even greater privacy. You can even decide who sees which item on your blog. Some may be only for your friends, others for your family. All you have to do? Just scroll down to the "viewable by" box below your post, and click on "anyone", "friends and family", "friends", "family" -- or, if you like, "nobody". The last option allows you to save your post as a draft -- viewable only by you.

Vox is really easy to use. So are Blogger, WordPress.com and, I guess, MySpaces. But Vox is better for packrats. You can organise your photos, videos and audios here in neat collections which can be viewed separately from your blog entries. You can even store Amazon.com links to the books you have been reading or want to buy.

Vox is a great choice for bloggers, as I mentioned in December. Even those using Blogger or WordPress could give it a try. You can import your existing blog into Vox with the click of a button. Why should you do so if you are using WordPress.com? You can store more photos here. As for Blogger, it's miles behind in innovation.

My only complaint? Vox doesn't come with a readymade searchbox like Blogger or WordPress. But it was launched only recently. And it's bound to get better. Anyone who wants a good-looking blog with beautiful templates, lovely typography and plenty of storage space should give it a try.