Google gives Blogger a long overdue facelift
First up, Google has redesigned the post editor. It's still a what you see is what you get editor, but the toolbar looks much cleaner and placing images got about a thousand times easier thanks to a new drag and drop image handling. You can also easily resize images by clicking (or double-clicking in Firefox 3) to bring up a box that asks if you'd like an image to be small, medium or large.
Blogger in Draft also has better support for HTML and enables tables and other advanced HTML code to be placed in a post. And the preview feature brings up a new window so you can preview your post without leaving the editor window.
One thing to note is that Google has turned off the autosave feature, so you'll need to click the save button periodically if you don't want to lose your work. Autosave should be restored in a future update.
Google has also added the ability to import and export blogs as XML files. This makes it easy to change your blog's URL without losing any data.
You can also finally allow users to leave comments without leaving your site. There are three options in the comments settings. You can have the old fashioned full page comments, pop up comment boxes, or embedded comments that will show up without leaving the current page. Note that embedded comments might not work if you've altered your template in any way. In our tests, the pop up comments worked just fine, but since we've kind of pimped out our Blogspot blogs, the embedded comments were a no go.
Finally, there's a new star rating feature that lets visitors rate each post. Again, this feature may not work if you've messed with your Blogger template. There are a few more subtle changes, including the ability to make Blogger in Draft your default Blogger homepage. While Blogger still doesn't offer the flexibility that competitors like WordPress do, these latest updates do make the service a bit more attractive.
You can also finally allow users to leave comments without leaving your site. There are three options in the comments settings. You can have the old fashioned full page comments, pop up comment boxes, or embedded comments that will show up without leaving the current page. Note that embedded comments might not work if you've altered your template in any way. In our tests, the pop up comments worked just fine, but since we've kind of pimped out our Blogspot blogs, the embedded comments were a no go.
Finally, there's a new star rating feature that lets visitors rate each post. Again, this feature may not work if you've messed with your Blogger template. There are a few more subtle changes, including the ability to make Blogger in Draft your default Blogger homepage. While Blogger still doesn't offer the flexibility that competitors like WordPress do, these latest updates do make the service a bit more attractive.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jash Sayani said 6:59AM on 6-27-2008
Just saw the new interface.. Much better..
But I guess Google should know the progress Wordpress is making.. Hope there will be a Blogger client for the iPhone like the Wordpress guys have....
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pandaslist said 8:50AM on 6-27-2008
It's true that it is much better than before but as you said Wordpress beats it and the Iphone application will kill it anyways...
Doesn't it seem to anyone that Microsoft is still beating Google in so many way? that there is only one real dominant player over the world market without question and that is the most powerful company in the world: MICROSOFT
Asking myself this question I tried to get an answer of who is really the most powerful company on earth and it seems only one link could give me hope of a real answer:
http://www.themostpowerfulcompany.com
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bdgbill said 9:06AM on 6-27-2008
These improvements all seem to be based on the author side of things. As a frequent blog reader, I can't stand Blogger. It's horribly slow and their comments system is an absolute nightmare.
A blogger blog has to have some damn good comment to keep me coming back.
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Man said 3:01PM on 6-27-2008
I've been using Blogger for years and I have no idea about this comment problem. With comments on a different page it keeps those wondering idiots from comment-spamming.
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Mackenzie said 8:47AM on 7-01-2008
Blogger has always supported tables. All you do is type in <table> table, just like with any other HTML. As far as I know, it has never stripped them. I've put tables in my posts on there before.
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SunilJ said 6:05AM on 7-03-2008
If you don't like comment system, you can always try 3rd party commenting system like intensedebate like i did. the lack of trackback was another drawback, but there is atleast one 3rd party greasemonkey script to fix that. but the most important update that i noticed was export/import of blogs... didn't anyone notice it?
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