Monday, August 14, 2006

The New Blogger Preview


So guess who's getting an upgrade??? Yeah, after years of chugging along Blogger is finally getting an upgrade as previewed on the Google Operating System:The New Blogger. There isn't a timeline for the upgrade disclosed although the BETA has already begun.

So what are the new features of The New Blogger? Well here's a list of the supposed highlights:

• Access Control- Allowing full public, completely private, or select people you choose
• Labels- Everyone else calls them TAGS, Blogger had to be unique in describing a category type system
• New Template Editor- A WYSIWYG editor removing the needs for CSS and HTML knowledge while providing a way to uniquify the bland templates
• Improved Feeds- Now you can have post feeds, comment feeds, and post/comment feeds
• Dynamic Pages- There is no more re-publishing your Index or your Entire Blog... this apparently is automatically done everytime a change is saved
• Blogger moves to Google Accounts- Your Google account will now allow you into Blogger... and eventually your Blogger account will be morphed into a Google account

Sounds like a lot of neat things huh? In my opinion, way too little that is totally too late. Sure a new template editor would be nice for those afraid to enter the world of coding... but what good is a new template if no one can see it because you are once again down? Moving Blogger accounts to Google is just a way to boost Google membership. Is Google so much more secure than Blogger? I doubt it. Dynamic Pages and Improved Feeds... we already see those on other blogging platforms so there is no real advance here.

The biggest sham to me is the new Labels and Access Controls. From the screenshots, it looks like you type in the Labels you want whereas other software allows you to create categories and then select where the post belongs. It appears the slightest typo will create a whole new label. Access Controls affect it blogwide, not individual posts. So there is still no way to have a post passworded or for special people only while keeping the rest of the blog open.

There is one thing I found very very sad while taking the tour of The New Blogger... they have supposedly improved their template choices done by "some of the web's most talented designers" (those are their words... not mine!)... and guess what color template is featured in the bottom middle square??? Yup... orange. Pretty soon... I will no longer be retina burning unique... bastards.



EDIT @ 12:15pm on 8/15/2006- Okay... I had a very serious scare here... I thought I had been invited to do the whole BETA thing... but big surprise here folks... I'm not. Accidentally I signed into the whole Blogger Beta thingy via my Google account. Needless to say... for a good 30+ minutes... I thought I was locked out of my blog. I was stuck in the Beta Hell... which btw I have YET to see a new template in it.

Thankfully Donna pointed out I should reset my browser and try it again. She was right. The absolute most frustrating thing was while I was in the BETA and couldn't get back, I tried to contact Blogger through their CONTACT US link. Guess what I got... Error 404. I need off this system in the absolute worst way... simply because it just gave me a gray hair.

Be careful with your accounts guys... be very careful...
Posted by New York City's Watchdog :: 8/14/2006 11:01:00 PM :: Permalink :: 3 Bones Added to the Pile

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