Bloggeratto

Welcome to a new post series where i write about everything that happened and will happen in Bloggeratto from now on.

Technorati: Please Don´t Leave Me Alone

I really don´t get how technorati is doing things, or does things, but their engine even after the latest big upgrade it´s crashing already.

Why?, well, i have confirmed by Metacosmos searches, stas logs, and so on that Bloggeratto has been linked by over 100 blogs in what amounts to a almost 500 links.

Of all that, technorati only registers 39???? and only 268 links????, WTF.

And to make matters even worse it don´t registers my new posts since 11 days ago as if i were in a limbo.. but one thing it still register is even the slightest fluctuation of Rank, i have gone from 78k to a 52k and now 68k rank in the matter of the las few days....

I hope they fix their engine soon, and if you think i am the only one experiencing this because my blog is not important enough, how about a guy who is close to the 1k rank like Stowe boyd having a similar problem?

Blogger v2.0: Why You Hate Me?

Ah, my god.. Blogger v2.0 is going down the drain lately and if it continues like this, that "dogFood" as eric Case dares to claim, is going to be MADE of bugs instead of just having them.

I remember those days when i had not experienced a major problem with blogger ever and i felt like the golden boy because of it, now i have experienced a template cut off, a index cutoff and several mini crashes in just one week...

New Post Threads: More And More Of Them.

I have listed 30 of them, so i think i have room to grow here and improve even more this Blog content for a long long time, i will be taking them out as they fell right to materialize.

P.S:and thanks for those first submissions(9 so far) for Blog Of The Week, please keep them coming.

VS

Both Browsers are now out and there was not a slaughter in any side of the fence.

The thing is that now that both of them are out, each one of the two sides has their great strenghs to set themselves apart from the other one.

And here is what is most importat for all Bloggers to know:

IE7

Five years it took for MS to finally decide that they needed to ship a new IE, and considering how much time it had passed and that now it´s a post Firefox Internet, of course that IE7 was never going to live to it´s hype, and i will tell you something even if you had already noted it or not:

I am a huge MS buff, i had never hidden it, but you all know that i always tell you the truth, and yes, IE7 is not way close to what IT SHOULD BE,but even then, it is enough,why?, becuase for over 60% of the population given the time that they have used it and that they don´t know firefox, it will seem like a gift from heaven.

And i am not guessing it, i have already seen the reactions to it, i own a cybercafe and i have upgraded IE6 to IE7 in all the computers and if you could see the faces and reactios it got, it sure seems like Microsft knew what it had going on.

Now, let´s talk about it´s strong points that truly make it a better experience than FF 2.0 to new users thst never knew firefx and now most never will:

Favorites

The way favorites work, they work very similar to a ditched feature FF 2.0 was going to have, and that was called spaces, however, the feature is way better done in IE7 for the simple reason that spaces was the response to IE6 favorites, MS should have looked at it, and then launched a dare to Firefox, and it was a dare they could not win over IE, becuase if one thing was always well done in IE was favorites.

Feeds

I don´t have a clue why firefox decided not to include a RSS reader, but i guess it had to do with the fact various extensions run in firefox to display RSS, and they decided not to rock the boat just yet, and boy if that was not a dumb move.

I mean, yes, Firefox has live bookmarks, but they are RSS tickers and not a proper reader, the best reader for me before i started to use Flock was Fizzle, fizzle used the live bookmarks system to then display the feeds, one of the most brilliant extensions in firefox.

And that kind of display is what inspired Flock own display and what surely inspired MS to do their own, a modest looking with two supporting features: the RSS discovery button, that is kinda of a mix of how it was done in Maxthon and how it is done in firefox.

And their own new features for it, a searcher, categorization and better rooting.

In IE7, when you add a feed, it will look as far as it can, passing what the default number of items must be actually in the feed, something i find way cool, you can filter it, and you can search the feed = brilliant.

It seems, not many people have played with IE7 long enough to admit how good this feature is.

Printing

Oh my god, i am sooo grateful for this new printing adjustable display to no end, as i say, i run a cyber cafe, and one of the most common things is when elementary school kids come to search for homework and they want to print.

The usual method is copying and pasting to Word, and then printing., well, not anymore, IE7 printing is for me THE BEST new feature in IE7 in the sense is an actual innovation, and never seen before feature in a browser in the way IE7 does it.

Two honorable mentions:

1.-the viewmatic expose

yeah, seen before by the foxpose firefox extension, but nice to see it out of the box.

2.-quick tabs.

a no brainer, before seen in a plug in from maxthon, and now added to IE7 and Firefox 2.0, because when you are like me that you get to open over 30 tabs....well, this is a great thing to have.

The things that went wrong

asynchronic support

strange behaveior with web 2.0 sites

CSS support

No opacity.... :(

Firefox 2.0

After a lot of changes, it finally arrived, and to the way i see it, in a out of the box experience it don´t lives to the hype either.

i really expected a integrated RSS reader, better favorites and something REALLY innovative that would just BLOW out of the water IE7, it didn´t deliver.

and that is why i think the cake redmond sent to the firefox team carries with:

"congratulations for the delivery, we are proud enough of what we did to send you a cake since yours will not defeat us"

If Firefox, had embarrassed IE7 beyond belief,we would have heard about it already, the most i can hear is "firefox is better", " i will not switch back" and "you should still try Firefox" wich translates in:

"we cannot longer find a way to sell you on firefox"

And the proof is that a month before IE7 shipped, IE got 5% back of it´s marketshare. starting november, IE7 will be sended as a mandatory update to over 100 million systems always connected to the update center.

But, what is what makes the grade in Firefox new features?:

Favorites

Improved experience, easier to use.

Advanced Updater

Updating something in Firefox, was never easier and more painless, this new updater is something to love, no more screw ups while updating your firefox.

Suggested search

Real time search suggestions, and better handling of search preferences make search in firefox win over that round.

Look

Even the default look of firefox, is now a pretty thing, no more bleak crappy look, and if you still dont like it, changing of skins is now even easier to do.

while preserving that default glossy look that is now all the rage.

Spell checking

Ok, this is it, this is the biggest new firefox feature, a integrated and pretty smart spell checker, that can sure be hackable and more advanced as time passes, too bad that it don´t added many sources right out of the gate, if i wanted to see just red underlinings everywhere, i only need to start up a word 2000.

Communities

Firefox community still has a better edge over IE7 new community and marketplace of addons, but the winds of change have already begun, with the new start ups, and some old you already see them servng a version of their previous firefox only extensions to IE7, one of the most notorious add ons just happened yesterday when Foxytunes said you could download IEtunes, something i am sure was a bad news to firefox, since is one of the top firefox extensions and even a recommeded extension.

I have already saw that 4 more of the firefox top ten extensionare going to release a IE version. so this marks a line where the only spoken is that firefox cannot rely on just that anymore, now that this has happened so soon after their firefox 2.0 launch.

WINNER?


None, and that is the problem, they are pretty much even out with each other.

It really don´t matters that IE7 fell short on standars, in real world web this don´t matters much, much less now that web 2.0 is being assimilated by the big 3 and most want to be bought instead of remain and thrive alone.

I wished that Firefox 2.0 really kicked IE7 ass so hard that it made MS to launch a inmediae fix in the standards front, just to cover face, but it didn´t happened, and now we are into a walked in situation:

We cannot, and we should not ignore IE7 while builindg our blog, we were able to do that while IE6 was out becuase we wanted people to use other browsers very badly since IE6 was obsolete, now they won´t change to other as their default experience.

I on the other hand don´t have much problems with it, i use 3 browsers ,side by side, Flock as my main browser, that really is way better than both of them but that is not a mainstream browser to say the least, it´s a savy/geeky user browser with a web 2.0 twist.

then IE7 since everything MS run better in it and Opera 9.0 becuase i like it as reference for both browsers.

Now What?

Now, you just make your own conclusions about the two products.

i do must say that in the end, it will be good that there is now a real competition again, and that more RSS users, mean more readers in our Feedburner stats.

I have decided that i will support IE7 as much as i can in Bloggeratto, because i alreay checked the stats in my blog and IE went up 30% with my visitors.. if you ask how many were using mozilla before IE7 launch?, a more than great 75% AVERAGE and now IE is winning again...so....that is why i tell you to support it in you blog.

It seems Blogger is now going out of a limb to be as self serving as possible to Google for the rest of the Blogosphere, in what other way it ocurred to them that making a post where the only thing translated to the audience is that:

1)-They don´t like when you say bad things about them even if they are true so they will let you know about it as if they were some sort of melodramatic girlfriend:

Hence the "Don´t You Dare To Judge Me" reference in the title.

2.-If you are pointing out things, cut us some Slack and don´t be so Harsh,We are part of Google, we are the good guys..friends?.

Or in even simpler terms: WHINNING.

All this disguissed in some long Babble as how google consumes everything Blogger, meaning that they live the brand to the max, etc,etc.

Even if that they accept how fucked up Blogger v2.0 is and they transform that into a PR speech:

In conclusion, dogfood = yum, even when it has bugs! Blogger is powerful, secure, sophisticated -- and yet a tremendously easy to use tool that enables millions of people around the world to share their lives with each other on the web. And it's only getting better with age.

Wich is mostly true in the part after the awful "dogfood = yum, even when it has bugs!"statement, the problem is that such a post was not needed, i think it makes more harm that good to the Blogger image even if they were aiming for the opposite.

I will not give excuses about were i was, i do have answered the e-mails/IM´s (as i always do and will) about it.

Now, as you may have noted there are some common post threads in Bloggeratto.

I have tried to be more precise in the way i post by schedulling posting and planning posts in advance, when i have done it has worked ok, but it also has leaved me with quite a burden of unposted posts, so yeah, i have my own editorial filter in my head.

Right now there are over 30 posts that have not seen the light of the day for some reason or other or because they are works in progress.

Now, i have thought that the most important posts belong at the timeframe of a work week instead of weekend days, so i have decided to separate the posts series and put some for the weekends and other that always will run during work days:

I.-Work Days ( Monday-Friday)

1.-Blogger Says

Blogger Says is my rant post series about either really relevant Blogger news and about throwing punches to things that come from Blogger itself and that can be taken from Blogger Buzz, Blogger Forums or anywhere in the Bloggerosphere, but that come from the minds of actual Blogger Employes making them "official".

Many say that i am too harsh on them, well, i have this really big conflict with Blogger, I love it but i hate how it´s been managed post v2.0, and i think there are a lot Blog cuddlers in the wire already for me to cut Blogger some slack, my deal is to expose things beyond what it´s been said.

2.- Blogger v3.0

Right now, there are 6 people besides me that have taken the v3.0 motto for the new blogger and i am proud of it. i am not going to fall for the buzz of calling the damn thing a BETA, as i said before; if that is a BETA, then we have been living in a BETA release for 3 years now (problems started one year after Google buyout)

You can search in any search eninge the term Blogger v3.0 and guess what you will find as the top results?...... yep.

This series of posts serve and will serve under that mantle until v2.0 is either DEAD or over 60% of the userbase gets to be in v3.0.

Or

I will be making the move of taking Bloggeratto to v3.0 by any means necesary, even by performing what i call "the hellswitch" method if needed, so that by the 1st of January of 2007, so no matter what,Bloggeratto can be at v3.0 by that date, and only then i will drop that post series name.

3.-Blog Of The Week

One of the features i always loved of Blogger v1.0 homepage was Blog Of The Week, this was taken down almost a year before v2.0, but i think a come back is needed, so i will be doing the Blog Review Dance too starting next week.

So, if you want to suggest me Blog or want to be showcased here, send me a e-mail.

4.-Bleet News.

Many still ask me what the hell Bleet means, well Bleet is the term i came with to refer to the Blogger Elite Scene (L33T-1337), this don´t refer to very famous Bloggers, this refers to the group of people i consider the Bloggers that contribute the most to improve the Bloggerosphere and for what i started this blog, so what better than have a unregular(maybe weeklish) post series for when someone in the Bleet want to let all know something and don´t really fits into a Buzz post.

5.-Beyond The B.

This series will serve to focus post that affect the Blogosphere in general, or that must be reflected into a larger scope from a Blogger- Blogger angle.

II.-Rest Days (Saturday and Sunday)

This post are quick newbits chunks, so they serve to keep up everything on check, and tell you more about what i see.

1.-Blogger Status Report

That will resume weekly,whatever problems reported in the Known Issues Blogger Blog, the Blogger Status Blog, Forums,etc, etc.

2.-State Of The Bloggerosphere

What were the common/relevant themes for the week for Blogger users, here you can know about it in very short posts.

3.-Updated Posts

I really think thatn having the recently updated widget is not good enought, so i will ditch it soon in favor of this weekly post where i put what was updated.

4.-Retronomous

This will list every retroposted thing added into the Bloggeratto Archive.

What does this mean,you may ask, well as i said to a friend over IM, why do Blogging has to be Lineal?, so, i decided that if i wanted, i was more than able to post backwards in time, filling in for Posts i would have liked to post and enrich my archive while doing so, and that would not look weird if posted at present time since i hate when other Blogs do it.

"slow week?, bah i will post from the backburner as it is, no one will note"

I HATE THAT, Blogs must stay relevant and in the now, more when they are thematic and NOT personal blogs, a personal blog can be whatever the person writing it wants it to be, but not a Blog with a public nature.

so i decidded that such concept was a good idea.

5.-Blox

From next week on i will not make Bloggeratto related post on work days and i will reserve them for a weekly post series.

so, this very post would be under this title like: Blox:New Post Threads.


III.-Some notes.


I decided to do this, so i can mantain a better Blogging pace, and because that way i can get my ideas for the blog in better shape and i think it will give more form to the blog.

i mean, i want to branch out and stand more as a Blogger Centric Blog, in a scope that cannot be provided by Blogger Buzz for example or by anyone up to this moment while keeping up focused on The Bleet.

I also want to say that,i am now looking for another partner for this very Blog, so if anyone else is crazy about everything Blogger Related just let me know. i truly want to make Bloggeratto into something Better.

Right now, i am adjusting and porting things to make sure that when i get to be in Blogger v3.0, Bloggeratto will be way superior to what it is today. i have also decided that the new Bloggeratto Look and related Proyects will be released that very day.

Right now, given my day workload i am better focusing in developing Bloggeratto, the other Blogger related proyects and my soon (i hope) to be released Personal blog.

I must say, that if there was someone who helped me to open Bloggeratto not only faster, but that allowed it to stand out as unique besides my very wicked self, that must be Aditya.

The Bloggerosphere only had two Wizkids for Blogger v2.0 to thrive on, one of them was Singpolyma who at the moment every one in the Bleet thought he was this skinny but smiling young man (i thought he were my age) from sweeden and the other was Aditya, someone that arrved to the Blogger platform in the wake of this year and gained a speed and momentum never seen before at the time.

He were churning big hacks advancements(comment highlighting,native asynchronic search, the abc index,etc) that i now must also tell, that just days before he left for college over a monthh ago, him along with a little help of singpolyma had archived the biggest Hack archivement for v2.0 there is after months of me naggin him about it of course:

Blogger Categories, True Blogger Categories.

Wich means, that they loaded the entire posts in the main, without loosing their respective footer of previous in main look and propeties like you now see done by a Label in Blogger v3.0

And that was when time and momentum were lost,since he then faced two things that made him bail out:

1)He was entering college
2)Blogger v3.0 was outed

Now that i think of it, i wish that v3.0 haven´t been outed that soon, becase just then, he lost the interest to finish it and no one else could finish it because it never was posted and the rest of the Bleet would now direct to v3.0 findings as Proven By Phydeaux3, Ramani and of course Singpolyma.

Without forgetting the newcomers like Hoctro and Hans.

What all this of the last great hack in v2.0 has to do with the return?, not much besides that was what Aditya were working when he leaved to college and that it point just how good he were in v2.0, but i wanted to tell that part too, and i thought this was a good excuse to do it.

So, what´s more to say that Aditya is back, and he even managed to turn 18 while he was out.

Long Live Aditya and welcome back friend.

now, say hello to him at:

Guess who's back?

Now, it would have been very cool that those true blogger v2.0 categories were finnished and launched at this very blog don´t it?.

Let´s say you are cruising the Bloggerosphere and suddenly you find a very interesting post with something you would like to know more about, what do you do then?

A)Ask the Blogger himself.

OR

B)Search for it either Living it up(*1), Yahoo it or Googling it?


Well, the truth is you could do both things if you are really interested in what you read, but what if you were a Slacker like me and you demand satisfaction inmediately with the push of a button?.

Ramani can give us just that as our first option, because he has cooked up a related post finder in the form of a very simple Bookmarklet(*2), that is so easy to use, that you only need to user your mouse to get it and use it.

Bookmarklet to find related posts


*1:my own catchphrase for the live search, since saying live it would be weird.
*2:it only work on item pages

One of the common themes that i have recived in my mailbox lately refer to having a second sidebar in Blogger v3.0.

With questions like:

-when are you going to do a how-to about adding a second sidebar?
-How can i add a second sidebar in my blog?, i use the new blogger.
-Do you know any good 3 column templates for blogger BETA(v3.0)?

To what i responded directing them to the correct posts here in Bloggeratto until this last question arrived:

I still don´t get how to do it, you don´t know of any tutorial easy to follow for beginners?

To what i respond:

Yeah, i do, i do know of a easier tutorial to follow, and of that i thank to Hans.

So if you want to mod your template by yourself, or want to do your own 3 column version of either official Blogger templates or Free-To-Use templates, then you should read this post:

Adding a second sidebar to your Blog - part 2

Now, this hack is one of the most important ones there can be, becuase without it, other hacks to be done later cannot be if you take in count how they were done in v2.0, and others that even if you can have them on the item pages, get more sense to have them in the main.

Like highlighting, author commenter photos, asynchronic comment form, and other stuff that can come later.

And of those in the list, one was aditya´s doing,and the others were also done by Singpolyma who is now chasing the edge of what can and cannot be done in Blogger v3.0, and what himself deemed impossible just a month ago, he just made it a reality.

Curiously enough this was one of the originally sanctioned Blogger hacks, but now, given the "magic" of the new blogger i suppose it was meant for other to be done, and who better that one of the top end Blogger Hackers around?.

So, this is a hack i really really love, in the case of other hacks, i just recommend them, this time around i ASK you to use it, becuase it ROCKS!.

And feel free to install away, because all niggles with it have been solved, and i have tested myself several times. you can see the testblog at

Testabloggeratto

After cecking that out, just go to singpolyma and follow his intructions as he is dictating them.

Comments on Main/Archive Page (Peek-a-Boo) in Blogger BETA

Hoctro is at it again to bring us some ports to use in Blogger v3.0.

Be either the Ajax Search Widget for your sidebar or the Videobar wich were introduced by the google ajax search team.

1.-Search Widget:



The "Hello Video World!" of Google's Ajax API Search in Beta

2.-Videobar



The "Hello Video World!" of Google's Ajax API Search in Beta

So there you have it, if you wanted to implement them in your blog , that is where you can find them.

Ok, ok, now this is a useful feature to be happy of, a bulk label management so you don´t have to edit a post to add or remove one by one.

This was first noted by Hoctro and Phydeaux3

And both offer great rundowns of the new feature if you wanna know more about it.

But it is not "official" until Blogger Says it is, they also added their own documentation page for it

Phydeaux3 posted a insightful rundown of the Blogger V3.0 Tags that carries useful information for everyone that wants to understand v3.0 better.

Beta Tags Evolution

In Blogger v2.0 Comment highlighting was a hack introduced by Aditya, and now for Blogger v3.0, Ramani is the one introducing it to the scene along with a port from his previous v2.0 service of comment notification.

Author comment highlighting and notification

Now, how much time for a fulle features highlighting with author photos, is what i want to know.. :D

I still saty by my word of never ever put Ad-sense or bad advertising to conform with my principles and to practice what i preach.

So, having that very clear, i always try to look into the new kinds of advertising that give more value to everyone, so if you are thinking to advertise you blog, please look into other solutions better suited to your blog that the regular options.

In this case a good concept seems to be Performancing Partners given the Bulletpoint provided of what the claim, and that they got enough trust to back that up so far:

* You take 70% of advertising revenue your blog generates.
* Performancing takes 30%
* You take 5% of income generated by any publisher or advertiser you refer to us

So, now you know, have a look at it:

The Performancing Partners Blog Ad Network

I Like to note how the blog evolves, be it with hacks, mods, methods, services, etc.

The changes made from v0.2 are:

I.- Content.

1.-Even More defined line of what kind of post i now make as the regular form of the blog, lately with the sequence of

A)Review/look up (services, apps)

B)Buzz post of directly Related Blogger Content (hacks,Mods,Methods, Tricks, Tips, Blogger News)

C)Bloggeratto : A post directly generated from me in any form or fashion.

2.-More Frequent posting

3.-Retroposting

I started to do retroposting last week, every one of those post are marked with a -RetroPost- disclosure.


II.-Blog

Issues

-Feed fiddling-
-90% reconstitution of blog after losing it All-
-Not yet reconstututed Asychronic Comment Form-
-solved some bugs-

New Features/Services Added

-Hover Comment Count In Previous Posts List-
-Bumpbox-
-Bumpbox Digest-
-Borde-
-Meebome!-
-Hover Subscribe Links-
-SnapQuotes-
-DropCaps-
-Feedburner Email Service-
-Chatango Gruopchat-

To see the previous changes: Zero - v0.2


I plan to update the blog faster with more hacks and more services added to the blog and to put a Master List of what its in the Blog, inside the Blog Source Code and In a RetroPost

Along with a lot still in store that i am so behind my original schedule that i will not even mention again.


Suggestions are welcome as always.

If you even felt bad about not having your own Header Rotator, well, stop feeling that way because you can now have a very simple script to do that task for you courtesy from
Gabs Lau from FreeYaSoul

And yes, you can have it either in Blogger v2.0 Or v3.0, so install away:

Random Rotating Banner Hack

There are many ways to get traffic now, either it being forced or worked, one those way are the Traffic-exchange sites, these sites work in the same vein a Money Matrix, but in this case you get traffic credits, meaning that if you look at 3 blogs, someone will have to check out your blog.

And it also has a directory anyone can look into, for some actual blog searching.

Obviously, this will only serve for the purpose of artificial pumping of traffic, and better SEO-SEP-Rank more than actual reader becuase thequality of the hits you will get will be low or very low.

Now there is this new service from the same company that has one of the best two examples of traffic-exchange sites, Blogmad is betting on another idea that at the moment don´t let´s much to know, but seems to be a new kind of traffic exchange, and from what can be deduced-guessed, this new site will work also as a kind of open meta-filter/digg but for sites and i guess it must be a traffic-exchange thing into it.

Well i got curious, because if it work, i want to be part of it, and if not, i don´t lose a thing for checking it out, so if you got curious, here you can click for the qucik sign up:

Exlinks

via Zlythern

Update

As Paul from exlinks have confirmed in the comments, exlinks will be a social linking network (hence the metafilter for websites or more like a socialized metafilter proyects) and will not sport a traffic exchange matrix into, it, that is great, i am now even more interested in seeing how it shapes up.

Ramani started it, so i thought:

Why only Ramani?

So, if you want to make Bloggeratto a favor to show how much you like it, you can go here and if you got a Technorati account, just favorite me.

Now, i want to thank to all of you that are linking me, i actaully know that i have been linked from 104 blogs, so why my technorati says i am only linked at 38???.

Who knows, but i guess it can´t see those blogs.

One thing to also not only help me and help yourself is to claim your Blog in Technorati making your account, this will not only will help technorati to see your blog better, it will alow him to see who is linking you and how your are linking, this will result in a better visibility for you too.

Technorati

Here is another way you can spicy up your blog, so it gets to look cooler, and this time around is so you can have Drop Caps in your blog posts, it is very simple, you only have to follow Hans post on this if you are using v3.0:

Magazine Style Drop Caps

Blogger v2.0:

Since this is just CSS, the procedure is the same, the only thing you need to do is excahnge the CSS v3.0 variable ($headerBgColor )for your color value (gray,#999)

And remember you can also adjust how big you want your Drop Cap or add a font-family parameter if you want that drop cap being from a different style of your post text to spicy up even more.

In MY case this is the code i have used for Blogger v2.0:

.dropcap { float:left; color:gray; font-family:sans serif; font-size:50px; line-height:30px; padding-top:1px; padding-right:5px; }

It was only a matter of time before someone decided to make a kinda web 2.0 Matchmaker service for Bloggers, and i would welcome the idea a lot more if they didn´t had that Terrible name, dated execution and extremely corny vibe.

1.-The Name

Lonely blogger sounds like the name of something inside a USA mid season sitcom or a from a low casted talk show, i really hate it becuase i think i would have liked someting less desperate and corny name. from the top of head i can think of

Bloggies - faux play of words that mean Blogging Buddies
Blover- mixed word with more intention
Logged - more web 2.0 like. (vague and with a "funny" story behind it)

Or even a quick turn around of their logo to make it IHeartBloggers.com, if they wanted to scream for atention but in a more comfortable way with a gimmicky name:




Now, i want you to note the four names, two of them refer from singular, or from the basis of one person reference and two names reference something you need TWO people to make sense of, two persons being together.

The problem with the name LonelyBloggers is that it refers to a expression that only someone from outside the group could make, like in a classroom:

"oh here you got the freaks, the losers, oh and now the lonely bloggers"

WTF?

Now note the most succesful social related web start up names along with the dating personals most succesful name:

Myspace - reiteration of something only you can own and from where you get to be known

YouTube: a reiteration again now made from the service to the user, this is your tv

Facebook : a simple slang to refer to a school annual book, in this case it refers to two things: something you can only truly be part of as a student and the word being in singular refers to the simple thing that this is YOUR facebook.

Coincidence that those three so simple words that always refer to the concept of one are the most popular social web services?, not really, a good and easy name will leave a more ever lasting mind impression on someone and will be easier to market, and from there is what something mainstream roots from.

Because it refers to anyone, but has the implication of being all about someone, and at the core, that is what 90% cares first about: themselves.

And from the dating scene:

Match: again,a very easy and simple word that can only be if you are thinking in two persons together.

2.-Execution:

umm, ok, i enter the site, and i am seeing just a copy of what Match has along what some other private networks have applied.. all this is very common place from the late nineties.

Where is the novelty in it besides being thematic?

Nowhere that is.

If you are in for the Blogger crowd, this is no way of doing it. the true novelty would have been seeing the same database personals with more detailed profiles that can be extended to a blog with service wdigets and more important that that keeping both a public and a private exposure.

It could be a place where to be more direct about what you like and who you would like by being able to expose it with some social tools and integrations. a kind of a remix of what myspace does, with what a dating network does and taking in consideration the target audience.

Being able to keep a public face and a private face for the user.

3.-Corny Vibe

ok, if you are about passion and all that, then please don´t be lame, be cool, and whinning about everything or about stowe boyd will not give you the image of someone a entire community can trust..

(you need to read the company blog to understand what i mean)

---------

That is it, i decided to do the post because a reader told me about Lonely Bloggers, and she wanted me to read my opinion on it.

And as i said, i liked the idea and the concept, but i can´t stand how flawed it is, even before it starts.

lonelybloggers

Blogistanian asked me over my Bordee Pageboard that he was unable to find it´s v3.0 blog Meta Data, and what had changed from v2.0 to v3.0 in that matter.

Well, it is better you to know this from the let go:

Google don´t gives a damn about Meta Data, Meta Data it´s not going to make your rank go up, or to have better SEP in it.

It was recently reported in net tech blogs that google don´t takes in count keywords to it´s placing or to meassure how much rank it´s going to give you, google it´s all about references, visits and Adsense (they will deny this, but if you have a good rank in adsense click throughs, your site will get preferencial treatment)

However,most of the other search engines DO take them in count, MS take them as reference to filter the asociations but not really postioning you because of them.

Yahoo in the other hand, is the search engine that take them most in count and even has a formula to take them into or churn them out and dismiss them.

The formula is that you must only have one simil keyword sequence, that means that if you put hack, you must not put hacks later or if you have hacks, you must not put hacking but only a non repeated sequence of keyword that must not go beyond 15-20 (no one is actually sure) keywords so they can be taken in count and help you the most in Yahoo.

The other search engines vary as well, but most of them take them as a factor to filter or process what results are going to be indexed with querys, so having Meta data around it´s good if you got it right and with measure.

In Blogger v3.0 the remote inserted meta data is controlled by a tag with the atribute All Content, i will not even tell you to locate it because you MUST NOT remove it since it seems to be somewhat relevant as a simple identification for google bots.

Now, if you want to have extra meta data, there is nothing wrong with that, and you can put it on the HEAD section of your template and at the start of it before the CSS variables.

If anyone have further questions, just ask.

One of the things you can note right away from v3.0 blog is that the feed links for the blog appear at the bottom of a blog.

Singpolyma got feed up (pun intended) with it so he decided to make a widget so anyone that decides to offer the native feeds as their syndication medium can do so sporting it in a sidebar.

Feed Links in BETA

It been a little while since i wrote about Chatango , and my opinion about it after revisiting it has not changed,as a concept and as a specs sheet, it it´s superior to anything in the widget chat crowd right now, but it still suffers from the same minor but lethal problems that for some reason it donn´t supports a face to the public, it has no PR, it has No company Blog, it has sported the same design for way too long, and don´t have a clear biz model or a goal statement.

Back when i posted about it, i was cruising the web on da flock (becuase , and i saw someone in the Meebome chat, i said hello, and i was replied back, to my surprise, it was one of Chatango´s main men(alec i think) and we had a little chat about their service.

I remember saying to him that i was concerned now that meebo was easily going to be at the top spot becuase of the money it had and their brilliant execution of their service, EVEN if Meebo wat not in any way superior to what chatango had to offer.

Many think that if you got superior tech then it should be a no brainer for anyone what service to choose, this is wrong and lethal, you still need to sell the service, push t, pimp it.. etc.

He seemed very unworried by this, and that there was enough budget and drive to keep Chatango going for a long time to come leaving clear that they were not really really into the game, maybe they test softech and this is a way to do it for something else they develop and sell.. who knows. but the truth is that chatango could be way way way better in what they doing wrong, and that is their having absolutely no Brand Buzz or Drive. Because as i said they don´t even have a company blog, or a newsletter and they go along with a dated design and look that makes me think i am still stuck at the nineties(in a wrong way)

And while they still remain oblivious in their brand image, PR and goals. their features set got even stronger with the introduction of their Group Chat Board Widget

That it is not only a embedable (widget) chat, but it also a board in the same vein of those tagboard and c-box that are so late 20th century and now really must go away i hope (are you reading this Efendi!?)

Oh, and put the cherry on the top of it, it also has a landing page, wich means that it don´t only exist in your blog and inside your chatango account, it is truly public at all times..

Wich means that obtaining a Chatango Account you can get the Group Chat Board Widget, without having to put a one on one chat widget in case you are already on the meebome bandwagon, you can keep that one to use their social chat network if you want to, since inside a chatango account you can search for contacts in the same manner you would expect to do it in friendster with the difference that you get to chat to them right away or leave them a offline message, that chatango does support.

And that optionally you can download a desktop message box so you don´t have to leave a tab online in your account page, besides the option of reciving notification on your mail when you get new offline messages.

And with the Group Chat Board Widget you get:

1.-a live chat widget in your blog that let you block and delete messages.
2.-a extra funtionality that makes it serve as a tagboard/shoutbox/cbox for offline messaging
3.-A landing page that has your chat in full size mode that lives in it´s own where chatango account members can get to connect with you without even visiting your blog

And if you were wondering how it looked like, here it is in all it´s glory:



It comes with customizable fonts, colors and sizes. truly only lacking more layout designs.

So, there you have it, now let´s hope they hire a PR Blogger and a Good Designer to improve their brand now they have more than enough features to satisfy almost everyone.

Chatango

As i have said and will say again, if you write to ask me something, i will deliver you answers, no matter how easy or hard the question is.
This time around was about posting Code into a Blog Post:

Avatar, i have seen in your blog and in others that somehow you can write code on post, how i do that?

"Somehow?"

heh, there are lots of ways to do it, but the cleanest, easy and the prettiests are this ones:

1.-Inline Replacing Marks

This way you only need to write this to replace the code openers and closer tags:



To get this:

<a href="http://bloggeratto.blogspot.com">Bloggeratto</a>

That in your post Html Editor must look like this:



2.-Inline Text Fields

In this case you need to put a code to be able to show the code you want to post.

To do this, you need to put a text area form field each time you want to post a some code and then place it inside.

The code for a Textarea form field is this:


<br /><center><form><textarea rows="3" cols="50" readonly>Code you want to post</textarea></form></center><br />

To get this:

<a href="http://bloggeratto.blogspot.com">Bloggeratto</a>

See?, very easy to do. now, i use the first method, and others like Hans use the second method.

So, it is only a matter of taste.

Well, i hope this have been some help to someone.and once again, i am just a message away, and now you can also find me at Bloggeratto Bordee Pageboard where you can leave me messages publicly or in private mode.

In Blogger v2.0, the way to add a introductory post was just to post it to the future o r to add the text directly before the body inside the template, this continue to be true for Blogger v3.0 when you want to do it in the main, but what about Label pages?, well thanks to a dedicated Hack from Hoctro, now you can add some introductions in each label you make.

This will help your reader to figure out your Blog content faster and easier.

Adding an Introduction to Your Label Pages

Say, you are redesigning your blog, and everything went just like you wanted, and suddenly you ralize you don´t have any cool icons to round up your design?!.

Well, if you read this post, such situation will never encounter you.

Iconbuffet is a service to obtain Professional Designed Icons, that every month releases a Icon Pack for free that you can use away.

There is a catch of course, the catch is that you must make an account with the and agree to et exposed to other designs to what they expect you will buy icons packs too while you are using the service.

So, it´s a tiny catch compared to what you recive, and how well designed the icons you are reciving really are.

Have a look:

Iconbuffet



Via

Two friends asked me when i would post on this, so i guess this is the post they were waiting for.

The Bulletpoint

Google is now the owner of YouTube after paying 1650 million dollars in Stock, wich means that after that YouTube Founders were converted into Google Stockholder unless they sell all their stock right away wich is not something common but could Happen.

The Reasoning Behind It

Many people thought that Google didn´t needed to buy YouTube.

They are WRONG.

Google Video was a complete failue to Google eyes because they were not even in third place on the online video crowd, they were in the fourth place.

1.-YouTube
2.-Yahoo Video
3.-MySpace Video
4.-GoogleVideo

Now, many of you would say that the Fourth Place it´s not such a Bad Place to be, but to google that were investing a lot of effort in their Google Video branch, this was unacceptable.

Why?

Well, maybe becuase Google Video was the second Video on the web just after YouTube, then why it is not at second place now?, why it got passed away by Yahoo that got launched later and MySpace Video that was not that long ago from being launched!?, How can that be?

Simple, Google Video SUCKS big time.

Yeah you heard me, and am not talking about the quality of the service of the embed windows or how it streams.

i am talking about that it didn´t had no structure at all, their social features were launched later and in a way that made you wish they didn´t have bothered to do it.

It has a lot of power but not a bit of structure, it don´t feels like a brand, like a community, like a service, it don´t feels like anything.

A personal Ning Video Page has more identity that the entire google video branch.

They realized that.

And then you got the competition that is killing them becuase their act cannot pull itself together.

Other reasons are:

Yahoo Video barely heating up, and Yahoo has a long term "Media Center Online" plan that has Yahoo Video as one of their main pillars wich is why they also bought Jumpcut, that is a online service to edit videos on the go, this will allow them to improve not only their Video branch but their whole media center idea.

MySpace Video was launched as a sure bet from the board members after checking out the numbers of YouTube windows playing inside MySpace, they saw big money and a way to reach even more people with whatever they can plan.

They launch it, and to the surprise of no one it turns into a phenomenom in it´s own right considering how new it its to their counterparts, they passed over Google video without breaking a sweat, Google notices this,and see they are no longer in the podium.

Then we got the late adopter that don´t cares it is the late adopter becuase they ARE the biggest entity there is: enters Microsoft own Soapbox initiative.

There was such a rush in the Blogosphere to disminish Microsft saying it was to late for them.

They are also WRONG.

Microsoft has the Biggest HubBlog platform in terms of reach with Live Spaces, they launched SoapBox as a MSN brand and not a Live brand becuase it was considered best to push it in a more Global way, considering the deals they got all over the world that ties the MSN brand.

In mexico for example Telmex (the biggest corporation in mexico that forbes has it above donald trump and even murdoch`s in the list) has a very close deal with Microsoft in several branches assuring MS total supremacy in Mexico and Latinoamerica thanks to the influence of the corporate group in it.

Then they are going to tie sopabox to msn groups and other yet to be named Live Initiatives along with also unknown Zune and Xbox integrations.

Oh, and i mentioned that WM12 is going to tie direcly to it or that MTV is going to get into the SoapBox bandwagon in their partnered MS deals?..

Yeah, that how you get to see the big picture here.. SoapBox is going to be a success becuase MS has the pull to lure everyone into it in one way or another.

And after being in Soapbox for two weeks(i am in every single MS initiave Betas) just using youtube or google video makes me shivers when i compare it to the ease of use Soapbox has.

(i will do a post on it too, don´t worry)

So, if after reading all this, you don´t see why they needed YouTube, then you must re-read this post.


The Price

Yeah, it a very step price, in real terms, i don´t think that YouTube is worth more than 500 millions, but the value in this case was not really about it being actually worth 1650 millions for what it truly is, but the worth was measured in how many people wanted to buy it!

the interest was everywhere, just from what was left in the open, even viacom wanted it.

So, if you got Yahoo, viacom and presumely other 2 unamed parties wanting it without even mentioning Google, then it is not a sale, it is a auction, so it don´t matters that it´s true price is 500 million dollars, if people are offering more and more it will then be bought by the most desperated party in that bidding war, and that was google.

Yahoo, has deeper pockets than Google but they are not desperated, they are at #2 and their only reason to want it was that google wanted it.

What it´s going to happen to YouTube

They could combine the best ideas of the two platforms, but this was already done by Soapbox, and the whole idea of buying it was to buy the marketshare and mark a step difference for the others to follow. so who knows what they plan on it.

Where is the Blogger Angle in this?

Well, what Google coould do now is fusion their both libraries into one, and then concentrate into improve the technology and it´s use, i would love to see google offering videoblogging integration for Blogger, and after this deal, they are in the place to do it, it also put them in a place where they can get a video partnership with apple focused on the social model and what i think is the more important angle for google to have snatched YouTube:

Adsense, a new boost to their video search and that they will be able to continue experimineting with their video adsense..so it truly gets full circle there. they get more content to search and push adsense and new ways to do it.that is where Google makes it´s money

So,, for me i am happy this happened, becuase it means the market will need to try even harder, and i can forsee other buyouts more focused in video flash technology and advertising synergy.

Update: edited

If you ever wanted to have snapquotes (also known as pullquotes) in your blog, now you can have that option in your blog thanks to Hans that has unearthed it for everyone to use.

A snapquote or pullquote is very much like the Blogquote with the difference that you are quoting yourself and not other source

A snapquote or pullquote is very much like the Blogquote with the difference that you are quoting yourself and not other source, so it is very much like having a second blockquote for that use so nothing gets confused.

Pullquotes For Your Blog

Blogger v2.0

If you want Snapquotes in your Blogger v2.0 blog, you only need to copy the code provided by hans, go to your template, add it to your css section and change the Blogger v3.0 color variables (
pullquoteBgColor, pullquoteTextColor and borderColor ) for color values (#000000) a and republish your blog and use as is told in Hans post.

Update: yes,it does have one incovenient, and that is that the text will get repeated in your syndication.

It´s the kind of word processor you wish you could have in Blogger, it can handle from the easiest things to the most complicated ones, it is truly the Writely for blogs.

Writely, while it will never replace MS Word, it is good for collaboration pieces that don´t need of complicaed stuff. in the same manner WriteToMyBlog is right on the kind of Word Processor you would like to have for your blog becuase the ease of use it offers you along with lots of other features



With this kind of cool apps sprouting in the web and google being the owner of Writely, i wish they could upgrade the Blogger Word Processor to be something more like this.

But in the meantime, if you like to write your posts in MS Word and then paste them into Blogger, now you don´t need to, you can use this cool online tool.

And even make tables and other chores in a semi automated way that will make your blog posts look way better.



And the best of it is that it´s free in every sense of the word becuase it don´t even requieres a login.

So you can bookmark it in your Browser and with just a click you will be able to use it from the let go.

WriteToMyBlog

I already know since the start of this year, that widgets, were going to be something to get used to after MS showed they were going to add them to vista in full force, then we already had the widget engine apps that worked with Yahoo, then Opera 9 got released sporting the first official Widget engine in a browser that before it was only seen as the firefox widget engine by a extension called firefoxit that enabled a virtual desktop in a tab.

And then we got the spread of Blog widgets, and in Blogger v3.0, even a simple thing like a post list is a widget becuase of the new Blogger being dynamic.

So,page elements are widgets, then we have widgets apps (embed elements) powered by the services you choose to have in the blog.

But that was not enough becuase, now the real gates have been opened by Google allowing that every important service they offer to be widgetized and used by anyone ,so we can expect quite a lot of spread in a way that we havent seen yet, because then a Yahoo and Ms respose to this is going to be prepared to flood everything with Widgets

But this post it´s not really about the spread of widgets even if it seems so, it about what the suddenly rampant market of all this widgetizing mean to Blogs,and more to Blogger blogs wich is the way they Look and the way they are used.

We are on the Brisk of seeing the Bloggerosphere to once again saturate itself in a way only seen in in the mid nineties or in 15 year old myspace kids.

Adn that is what must be avoided, the services offering the widget must offer full customization to the look of the widgets, so they can blend in directly with a blog design and common sense.

i mean, a world clock panel in your browser or in your desk is a good idea, but not in your blog...a weather widget that only displays your local weather and don´t adds to the theme of a blog it´s a bloat that can slow you down.

So, remember, not becuase you can have it, it meants you must take it.

In Blogger v3.0, the nightmare of not having pagination is very well over, and replaced by links that read Newer and Older Post to read the blog without jumping in the archives.



This is a mod to make those links into icons to enhance the look of your blog, so this is pretty much just a little make up for the blog brought to you by hoctro and Exploding boy:

Enhance Your Blog's Usability With Navigation Icons

Ok, so they finally decided to do it uh?. well, as you all may know by now given the huge coverage this already has. as in the actual post says, you must go to the FAQ to get all the details on it at a reiterative level wich i will resume here in one simple bulletpoint:

There is a Automatic-(API)- and a Manual-(Query)- way to ping Google

Wich is what it´s actually important for everyone to know.

And that they finally noticed that Blog Search didn´t worked right, and it needed to adopt the same model that Techonorati has, wich means you need constant pinging, so now they are going to follow the ping by post route,so they can populate that search and have that freshness focus. so if you have a blog, no more waiting from a hr to a day to get indexed based in your rank, now if you post every hr, you will get indexed once an hr,and only after that you will get screened and ranked based on your relevance.

ok, so what now?, nothing, just ping away.

Did you ever felt bad about snatchig pics to use in your blog without knowing if they were free to use images.

A little?, nothing?, it don´t matters, read own.

Yotophoto is a Search engine for Free-To-Use images in the web, you can snatch away without thinking it twice and that is very easy to use.

So, next time your are looking for that pic that captures art of what your new post is going to say, you now count with another option that is not onyl free but right to use.

How about that?.

Yotophoto

I recived a e-mail asking me if posting javascript in blogposts is actually After Amit Agarwal and other people blogged about it recently.

The answer is a overcomplicated Yes/No.

Yes, becuase there is nothing actually wrong with posting JS code into a post, it will work out ok.


No, because the problem is not running code in a post the problem comes when they are all running at once in the main, it will screw up the blog 90% of the times unless you:

A)You really really know what are you doing.
B)The code is of a very simple variety.
C)You got a main page with less than 5 posts in it.

So, that is the reason this warning is on your Blog post editor when you try to do it:



It will also show up with unclosed HTML, or any really malformed code,and this are the kind of warnings that you really must pay atention to.

So,in my opinion:

Don´t post trivial JS code in posts that later you have to remove post by post.

Do it when you are sure it is worth it and safe to do so.

Even if it was already dead, this time there is a official Notice

The reason i say it was already dead is because over a month ago Agent99 noted that Audioblogger was down,after that, i decided to take a look to it and what i found was a service that remained unchanged in the most static way possible from the time it was started by another company. when it launched it was not really a novelty, just the better executed version of whatever it was available at the moment, the thing it´s that i worked right, it was popular before the google Blogger reboot (v2.0) and it got even more popular afterwards, even people like xeni jardin, and other journalists used it for when they need to set up a record for their stories while in the move.

Time passed and the momentum that it gained was big enough to a point where it was the only true mobile audioblogging service that could offer you that stable and free service.

But time don´t stops and when you leave something without moving, without making noise, it get´s dated, and Audioblogger got REALLY dated,it never offered a desktop uploading option for some more solid Audioblogging, it never breached out in anyway, it was offered under contract to google to do what it did before the reboot, so maybe it is google fault it never got anywhere.

I mean, i even forgot about until i was reminded of it and if you searched it´s buzz, the only thing you would find is some whispering proving that it´s mindshare just evaporated.

But now it seems too late from the side of Evan Williams (Blogger Fouder) Odeo, wich is the company that Evan started when he left google´s Blogger v2.0 under a undisclosed contract but that now, to me from what i know and can easily see, it´cannot be a coincidende that a google rebranding, complete upgrade, resign from the last main man from the original Blogger and the closing of the only link left with Blogger from Evan williams get to happen in the same spans of months.

In Anyway, what i wonder is if Google has decided to let it just vanish, or is going to be offering a native solution for audioblogging?.

Only time will tell, but i can already guess it should materialize before the last day of this year.