Fresh new perspectives for your blog

Today we’re previewing five new dynamic templates in Blogger that you’ll soon be able to customize and use for your blog. These new views use the latest in web technology, including AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3, to deliver a host of benefits to you and your readers:

• Infinite scrolling: read more posts without having to reload or click to a second page
• New layouts: different views suited to different types of blogs
• Speed: download images as you view them, not all at once in advance
• Interactivity: there are now more ways to experience and engage with blog content

Click on any of these links to take the new dynamic views for a spin on a few of our favorite blogs: Flipcard, Mosaic, Sidebar, Snapshot and Timeslide.

Flipcard

Snapshot

Mosaic

To try these views on your own blog, simply add “/view” to the end of the blog URL—for example, http://buzz.blogspot.com/view. These new views are available on all public Blogger blogs with feeds fully enabled—to learn more, including how to disable these views for your blog if you wish, please see our help center article.

We’re previewing these templates early on so we can incorporate your feedback for a wider launch soon. At that time you’ll be able to customize these templates and select one for your blog. Please let us know what you think!

Antin Harasymiv, Software Engineer, Blogger

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Spare two cents?

Published by Brett Wiltshire

We had a fantastic week in Austin during SXSW, and it was a pleasure getting to talk to so many of you who dropped by our booth and party. We always learn a lot when we get to speak with our users and it makes a big difference when we're thinking about the next exciting things to work on.

In that spirit, we thought we'd give those of you whom we weren't able to talk in person a chance to pass along your input on Blogger and the way you publish content online. So for those with a few thoughts to share and an extra few minutes lying around, please check out our quick survey.

Thanks, and we really do appreciate it!

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Engage your audience with Follow by Email

Posted by Ben Eitzen, Software Engineer

Fresh content is the fuel that drives the blogosphere; it keeps readers coming back to your blog. Our team is always thinking of new ways to connect users with the freshest content across Blogger, and today we’re happy to offer a new, powerful way to do just that with Follow by Email.

The Follow by Email gadget provides blog authors a simple way for their readers to subscribe to the latest hot-off-the-press updates, which are delivered directly to the reader’s inbox. When new blog content is published, all subscribed readers will receive a daily email notification of the new published posts, which includes a copy of the new content as well as links back to the actual posts.

To enable Follow by Email, click the Add a Gadget link from the Design | Page Elements tab, and then select the Follow by Email gadget which should be at the top of the list. Once you add the gadget, readers visiting your blog can then just enter their email address and click Submit.

Taking advantage of Feedburner technology, Follow by Email will also track your subscription information, such as the number of subscribers and daily views. To view these stats, log into Feedburner.com, and select the appropriate blog feed from your list.

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What’s New With Blogger

2010 was a big year for Blogger. We cemented ourselves as one of the largest blogging platforms and the sixth largest website in the world, according to Alexa. Blogger users published more than half a billion blog posts, which were read by more than 400 million active readers across the globe. We introduced template designer, real-time stats, comments spam filtering, mobile templates, web fonts, and more. And to top it all off, we were dubbed the most reliable blogging service around.

2011 promises to be another exciting year.



To start, we’re kicking things off at SXSW by giving folks a sneak peek at our next-generation user interface. The new design is not only cleaner and more modern, but it also uses Google Web Toolkit, delivering the latest in web technology.

We’ll also be showcasing our new content discovery feature that lets you uncover interesting and related content based on the topics of the blog you’re currently reading.

These are just a couple of new features we want to share with you. We look forward to unveiling more throughout 2011!

If you’re in Austin for SXSW, be sure to visit us at the Google booth—or come by and enjoy a drink with us tonight at our annual Blogger bash. 

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Blogger in the Down Under

Posted by Brett Wiltshire

click for the larger version!

Last week was special for all of us who work on Blogger. For the first time, our entire team came together from around the globe to sit down in one room and talk about our vision for Blogger in 2011 and beyond. We came from five different Google offices spanning four continents, many of us meeting team members in person for the first time. And since we've come to truly appreciate the value of face-to-face time with each other, we also wanted to share a photo of the team behind Blogger.

While many of us were meeting in Sydney for the first time, we left as a family closer than ever, excited about the year to come and fueled by all of the engaging conversations and innovative ideas exchanged. The future of Blogger is bright, and it has been an exercise in willpower trying to keep from spilling the beans too early on what we have in store. The good news for you and all of us though is that with SXSW on the horizon, we'll soon be making some very exciting announcements. So please stay tuned, and once again thanks for using Blogger!

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Hang with Blogger @ SXSW2011

Posted by Brett Wiltshire

The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas is just around the corner, and once again Team Blogger will be on the scene and hoping to mingle with as many of you as we possibly can. We’ll have a booth set up on the tradeshow floor where we’ll be showing off some exciting new things we’ve been working on, so please come find us at booth 1322 under the giant orange ‘B.’

We’re also throwing our annual SXSW bash at Six Lounge on Monday, March 14th. We’ll have great local music, some goodies to give away, and of course, free booze. And if you come visit us at the tradeshow, we just might have some VIP invites lying around if you mention this post. Doors open at 7 p.m., so come early and avoid the lines.

Please spread the word, and we’ll see you in Austin!

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