Updates and Bug Fixes for April 18th

We haven’t made one of these posts for a while, so here’s a quick summary of some of the changes and fixes we’ve made today and in the past few weeks.

Today’s Fixes

• The “Add another image” link in the image upload box now works even if you haven’t filled in a URL.
• The labels field in the post editor autocompletes more predictably when one label starts with the same words as another.
• URLs in the Name / URL part of the comment form are now validated.
• Header fixes for the 897 and 565 templates.
  
• The draft / published / scheduled filters on the Edit Posts list now work reliably in Internet Explorer.
  
• Videos uploaded through Sony Ericsson phones now appear as enclosures in the blog’s Atom and RSS feeds, so they can be retrieved with a video podcast client.
• Miscellaneous typos and translations corrected.

Other Recent Changes:

• New blogs have OpenID commenting enabled by default.
• XFN rel="me" links between blogs and profiles.
  
• Adding more than 5 poll choices now works in Internet Explorer.
• The search box on the Edit Posts page is now available in all supported languages.
• The “www” redirect option is now available for custom domains that end in “.co.uk.”
  
• New “Related Resources” box on the Dashboard links to AdSense, Google Reader, and Picasa Web Albums.

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So long, and thanks for all the zen!

We’re bidding farewell today to Eric Case. Eric joined Google five years ago so that he could do something — anything — for Blogger. Since then, he’s answered support tickets, launched blogs, designed features, hung out with MC Hammer, eaten very slowly without drinking, and, for the past year, been our product manager, with all that that entails.

We’ll miss you, Eric! You made Blogger better. Good luck with your next endeavors, and we’ll be reading your blog.

— Pete, and the rest of the Blogger team

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Blog List, Scheduled Post Publishing on Blogger in draft

Have you tried out Blogger in draft, Blogger’s experimental features site, recently? Blogger in draft is a version of Blogger with features we’re trying out before we “publish” them to everybody on the main site. (See our original announcement: “Blogger... in draft.”)

If you’re feeling adventurous, all you need to do to try it out is log in to draft.blogger.com instead of www.blogger.com. If you see the blueprint logo then you’re in the right place.

Our two latest features, which you can try out now on draft.blogger.com, are:

• Scheduled Post Publishing If you write a post on Blogger in draft and set the post’s date and time to some time in the future, we’ll schedule the post to appear on your blog at that time, and not before.
• Blog List Add a blogroll to your blog’s sidebar. The Blog List is powered by Google Reader, so it can show when each blog was last updated and even include post titles and snippets.
  

Keep in mind these features are still being worked on, and let us know if you find any problems.

We have other page elements on draft, too:

• Help your readers subscribe to your blog in their favorite feed reader with the Feed Subscription page element.
  
• Add any of the thousands of Google Gadgets to your blog’s sidebar with our Google Gadget support.
• Search over your blog, your Link Lists, or all the pages you’ve ever linked to with the Search Box.

We post the latest news about Blogger in draft to the Blogger in draft blog. Stop by often and write comments about how the draft features are working for you.

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Announcing Google Weblogs (beta)

Update: This was an April Fools Day post. :)

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Today we’d like to offer you a sneak peek at an exciting new product we’ve been working on: Google Weblogs.

Since Google bought Pyra Labs in 2002, we’ve been dreaming, planning, and implementing the next revolution in personal publishing: Google Weblogs.

Google Weblogs, or “GWeblogs,” or “Gblogs,” which will launch later this year in a public beta, is the next revolution in personal publishing. Here’s what you can expect:

• Don’t limit yourself to “reverse chronological” publishing. Our advanced Google algorithms put your best content at the top of your blog. Even if your later work goes downhill your previous posts will still shine.
• No more template languages to mess with or sidebars to get right. Our advanced Google algorithms automatically populate your blog’s sidebar with the most relevant possible content.
• Stop worrying about your PageRank or your search engine optimization. Post directly into Google search results for maximum visibility.
• Save your readers time and effort. We’ll automatically extract the most relevant sentence from your post for the index page, along with any necessary ellipsis. We'll also put some words in bold!
• Your blog’s header will stay fresh with new images from our team of artists, each and every anniversary of a scientific achievement.
• Unsure of what to post about? Just click “I’m Feeling Lucky” and we’ll “take care” of the rest!
  

Excited? So are we! Take a look at this sneak peek of Blogger Buzz, powered by Google Weblogs.

We’ve put together a quick video tour to take you through the highlights of Google Weblogs. Check it out!

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