Google Takes Blogger.com to the Next Level

Blogs are all the rage nowadays. And, it was no surprise to discover that very fact when Google purchased Blogger.com way back in 2003. After all, what pie *hasn't* Google taken a slice of yet? Now, after three years, Google has finally given its blogging property a major facelift. (Source: yahoo.com)

Here are the new features Google has added to blogger.com (quoted directly from the website):

Customize your template

1. Create the blog you've always wanted with new page elements and font and color options.

2. Drag and drop page elements to customize your blog's design in a snap

Create a private blog

Want to share your thoughts with just family and friends, not the whole world? The new Permissions tab in Settings makes it easy to control who can view and contribute to your blog.

1. Add authors so multiple people can post to your blog.

2. Choose who can view your blog just by adding their email address.

More [RSS] feed options

We've added some additional feed options for our more advanced users. Now you can have a feed for all the comments on your blog, and even individual feeds for all the comments on each separate post. We've also added support for the RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 standards.

Updated Dashboard

The new Dashboard makes it easier to check your blog's activity and gives you one-click access to the most common blog management tasks.

Instant publishing

Say goodbye to the dreaded "Publishing..." spinner. Now, when you make a new post or change any of your settings, your blog is updated and changes go live immediately; you don't have to remember to republish. (Source: blogger.com)

Blogosphere: Overview

As of October 2006, there were an incredible 56 million blogs on the Internet. Obviously, creating a blog is the "in-thing" to do right now -- but will the trend last? Gartner, a research company, says no. A recent report from the firm suggests that the blogging phenomenon will actually see a decline in 2007.

"Today's overexuberance [of blogs] will give way to a steady state of at least 30 million active bloggers and 30 million frequent community contributors worldwide," according to Gartner analysts Ed Thompson, Adam Sarner, and Esteban Kolsky. "The steady state will grow again, but much more slowly, as the global Internet population rises."

The report from Gartner also pointed out that MySpace and Facebook -- two popular blogging websites -- have both lost traffic. MySpace has gone down four percent while Facebook has taken a twelve percent hit.

Still, the number of blogs remains strong. However, according to Gartner, a blog lasts three months on average -- and that number is decreasing by the day. (Source: yahoo.com)

Take my blog, for example. I signed up with Google's blogging website to create a sample blog for Infopackets readers. It has one post on it right now. More than likely, that's all it will ever have. The Internet is built for people with short attention spans, and I'm no exception.

You can take a look at my own Google blog page here:

http://csabga.blogspot.com