Hey bloggers! We heard about some changes that Google has implemented to Blogger in order for users to apply more creative options to the look and feel of their blog. We love to blog, so we thought this was worthwhile to share. Having as many options as possible for your blog is a good thing. What’s even better is being able to easily figure out how to use them without getting bogged down in implementation. Blogging has changed from what it once was but it is still about the content … and for many it’s about surrounding the content with visually stimulating images and art. As described by a recent Mashable post, here are the major additions to Blogger’s interface:
Flipcard: This visual view places square photos side-by-side in neat little rows. Hovering over any photo reveals the name of the post, the date it was published and the number of comments it has. Flipcard has the unique option of reorganizing posts based on recency, date, label or author.
Mosaic: Mosaic takes the photos related to each blog post and turns them into a visual experience — a mosaic of photography. Hovering over any photo with the mouse increases the size of the image and displays the title of the post in question. Clicking it will open the post as part of the mosaic.
Snapshot: Snapshot turns blog photos into a Polaroid-esque scrapbook with the number of comments and the title of the blog post clearly visible. Hovering over a Polaroid displays a short snippet from the post.
Sidebar: Similar in some ways to Gawker‘s redesign, Sidebar creates a left-hand menu bar with all of a blog’s articles as well as their comment counts. Clicking on a title opens the article to the right.
Timeslide: This is a three-column layout that displays recent posts. The left column shows photos and short snippets from a blog’s most recent articles, while the middle column displays only summaries of less recent posts. The right-hand column is simply a list of titles of older articles. Timeslide essentially encompasses three different time periods and makes them accessible.
Google hasn’t given their Blogger much love, but we hear that we can expect further improvements down the road. For now, these viewing choices won’t be offered as default layouts until Google determines if they are fully customizable.
You can check out previews here.
