@jsonbecker I think all of those things are true; whether we like it or not, most people want a centralised "town square" for certain conversations and announcements, and most people couldn't care less about ownership in general.

However, the alternatives you listed aren't exactly "app-able", you know? Certainly, it's not what I think of when I see Blogger, WordPress, and LiveJournal... though probably less so with Google Reader which I don't even know if it had an app? Generally speaking I have no idea because I wasn't involved in the broad social web back then, like, barely at all.