Bloggeratto

There are times when the same idea gets into the mind of several individuals, and when that happens is becuase it´s a good idea, so it´s logical the idea gets developed into something.

And that is what happened after the JSON support news broke loose. 3 of the main Players in the Bleet, took upon it and decided that the first thing to do should be a new Recent Comment Widget, here are the results:



One Liners Recent Comments Widget

Hoctro went first and so fast that the rest really could only check it up first.

Hoctro aproach is a non-complicated one, consisting of a one liners widget with the first words of the recent comments left in a blog, this make it more like a focus call, for the any visitor, since you are required to read part of the comment itself without much more knowing than that.



Blogger Hack: Recent Comments/Posts Beta Widget using JSON feeds



Customizable Recent Comments Widget

Ramani Followed Suit and made his own Recent Comment Widget making it easier to anyone get more into it and customize it under two parameters:

1.-Numbers of Comments to display
3.-Numbers of Letters to display in the excerpt of each Comment

Ramani Widget count with one beneficial size, he provides it as a service, so if anything happens he can update them without you needing to reinstall it.

Customizable recent comments widget (using JSON feed)



One Click Customizable Recent Comments Widget

And then, there is Hans, who took what Ramani Had done and took it even further to make it as good as possible, and not only that, it is also Automatic since Hans Converted it into a One Click Widget, wich elevated the cool factor of Hans version so much, that even Ramani applied Hans version to his blog.

And what more proof of it being the best you want?




Go to this post to know the details behind the widget:

Customizable Recent Posts Widget

And Go to this post For The Installation Page where you can find the one click widget button:

Widget Installation and Downloads Page

The only question that remains is could it get cooler than this?

Sure it can....but that is a another story i will share later on.

You have decided you wanted to have Websnapr in your Blogger Blog, now what?, where is the easy to go tutorail to install it?

Well, look no further: i got you the Right directions directions here:

For Blogger v2.0:

(NORMAL MODE)



The tutorial comes from my good friend of Portugal Ricardo Santos that let me know not really that long ago that he had made a tutorial post for websnapr and here you have the link for that post:

WebSnapr for blogger classic and beta

In this,yu have to work a little bit to get it done, but it is customizable and you make the calls fro when to use it or not


(SLACKER MODE)



If you want it the slacker way, then you only need to go to the BloggerBubble proyect post from Andufo.com and follow the directions there:

BloggerBubble

(One note to add is that you can also put the code just before the start BODY tag and it will be ready to go)

Adn that is it, you have it working in your blog with already adjusted settings:

Characteristics

* Ignores local, mailto and ftp links.
* Ignores links that point to zip, exe, rar, swf, mp3, wav, mid, avi, mov, mpg, mpeg, wmv, pdf, doc, ppt, xls, jpeg, gif, png files.

For Blogger v3.0:

(NORMAL MODE)



Sorry guys, but only regular version only for the time being( but don´t worry it is easy to follow), so head over again to Ricardo Post and follow the Blogger v3.0 instructions:

WebSnapr for blogger classic and beta

The results are determined by you as in the v2.0 installation

There, you got your Websnapr working in Blogger in no time.

Websnapr is another start up that was originally developed by Juan Xavier Larrea and that he sold recently for a undisclosed 5 figures sum wich for a start up that lasted online something like 2 months, it is great that he got that money, becuase then he can focus on things like Blogspy, pixer.us and feedorama wich are also Start ups he developed.

The service is that it can capture a screenshot of almost any site but that it main atractive it the post screenshot taking funtionality of being able to add this photos as preview thumbnails for your links.

Just hover this link to see it in action:

Zlythern
(wich by the way has y favorite websnapr integration)

I love the principle behind the idea of it, even if the execution and the use of it from the let go it is not something more than a nifty trick.

So, if you want to check the site, you can go here:

WebSnapr

To install in your Blog, go here:

WebSnapr For Blogger

Just some notes from Bleet Favorite Aditya about how the way to hack things in Blogger is now made easier now that we have proper Variables to Reference and how that was the stepping stone in the recent change of view Google is having towards the Bleet and the Web Hacker Scene as a whole.


The template editor explored

I Like when new faces get into the Blogger Scene, even if those result in unregular exploits, it always good to see a newcomer.

And it is even better when that newcomer comes from Bloggeratto Readership.

So, without anymore delay, let me introduce Alastor from Austria.so willkommen Alastor.

Alastor decided to delve into Blogger code waters so he could have a hover drop-down menubar, and thanks to that, now you too can have it if you follow the link to the post where he reveals what you need to know.

DropDown MenuBar

Just by the sheer amount of mindshare Flickr gets, it sure makes you belive everyone and their mothers have a flickr account, but the reality is quite raw, few people have Flickr accounts so my recommendation of Preloadr does no good to most.

And that is where Pixer.us enters.

Pixer.us it´s very alike to Preloadr and even seems like Juan Xavier Larrea (it´s creator-Saludos) made pixer.us becuase of preloadr being flickr exclusive.

In Pixer.us, you can upload any photo and edit it online with some amazing results.

The only thing missing in it would be that it could take photos directly from the internet to process.

So,if you ever need a online photo editor, now you now there is a premium choice.



(the editor can resize itself along the photo editor)

Pixer.us

Just a quickie from Vivek "Dirtbike" Sanghi pointing out how to make your blogger v3.0 tags searchable in Technorati.

For full details follow the link:

Allow your labels to be searched in Technorati tags

The PurpleMoggy Cat is no sporting a xmas hat already.

I guess not even cats can wait to december for some Xmas Hijinks:



and the PurpleCat is already bringing presents if we keep that analogy, so the first season present it´s a Technorati Rank Display you can put in your v2.0 or v3.0 Blog whenever you want, for more details, just look into that cat post:

Display Your Technorati Rank

I Have never understood why bloggers like to let you know how is the weather in their respective home while you are surfing around in their blogs, but it ALWAYS has been popular, so who i am to mess with that?

So, Hans, seems to be one of those weathernuts and he has a post where you can leanr how to do your own wheather report widget, this is useful if you like the DIY aproach and if you want to learn about how to do things in Blogger v3.0.

Weather Report Widget

If you are a Slacker like me and you already know the in and out of Blogger v3.0, then just visit the main page, and click the weather report widget at the left sidebar.

Beautiful Beta



And that would be it.

Preloadr was aone of those start ups, that slipped my interest to really try out until quite some time after it´s release.

Preloadr is a online Photo editor that works with your online photos at Flickr and that is really a time saver and a nifty online app to have a browser bookmark to.

You can efectively edit your photos and even apply some effects to them, without the need to download your photos, and with the option to replace your existing photo with the edited one or to upload as new all without leaving your browser.

Preloadr is the best Online Photo Editor For Web Only Photos, it just happens to be a Flickr only editor.

So, if you are using Flickr to manage your Blog Photos, you must try this one out:

Preloadr

Imagine this: Me not being able to make a sarcastic remark in this Blogger Says entry.

Yeah, quite shocking don´t it?

Well, Petey Pete point in a Blogger Buzz to a entry in the Gogle Data API Blog that bears the first FRONTAL call to the Hacker Community made by Google.

This is a more important announcement that it already seems, becuase for this two post entries to happen, really shows a strong interest in Google to Regain their "Cool Guys" badge at the eyes of Power Users and Hardcore users..

Something i can only cheer and give a reverence, becuase even if i am a Jaded Bastard, i alwasy recognize where credit is due.

So, cheers to Blogger And Google for this.

The Bleet Says:

The response from the some main players in the Bleet was something that quickly spreaded when the news broke open.

Two of the most concise reactions came from:


The man who is the definition of Cranky:

Phydeaux3

And of course, The Bleet WizKid:

Singpolyma

Technorati decided to poke with Blogger v2.0, so they have released a Link Count Widget that looks like this:



When installing this code:

<script src="http://embed.technorati.com/linkcount" type="text/javascript"></script><a href="http://technorati.com/search/<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>" rel="linkcount">View blog reactions</a>

And you can read more about it Here

v3.0



IMP from Consuming experience is now supporting the technorati link count widget asa One Click Widget, so you can get into the details at this post:

Technorati link count; plus Blogger Beta widget for linkcount

So, there you go, now you can have the widget in Blogger, no matter in what version you are.

One of the things that surprised me when i saw the Blogger v3.0 navbar besided that it now responded to the status of admins, was that it TWO buttons short:

The Flag? button:

That as everyone knows serves as a filter for bad/spam Content, but that one recently appeared again into the navbar as "Flag Blog" sporting a very ugly hovering notice.

The Blog This! Button

Wich were the one that i wondered the most considering the blog this funtionality has always been a staple in it, and something that was always promoted in Blogger, and becuase if this was not added from the beggining, could that mean it will bring more features when it does or maybe it´s because they have not decided if they are gonna add the very very delayed and lackluster feature of the "Send SMS" into it while they are it?


What More!?

As it is right now, even after the adding of Blog this, a button would still be able to fit there,i had never thought of itbefore, but what would be a good featute to have in the sidebar that is not there, that anyone could benefit from?

Customization

One could only wish that blogger would add the color parameters to the blogger v3.0 navbar, that surely would be well recived by most, or if not, that they could add more color combinations for it just as a nice common sense gesture.

And fi they feel daring, they could even add the ability to drag the search to a widget module inside the blog as a option to not having it in the navbar if wanted.

But who knows why they do things the way they do....

;)

A quick How-To for any new Blogger v3.0 tweaker,modder or hacker.

Hacking Technique: How To Modify a Template

There is not much more for me to say that i haven´t said in this other post:

blogger v3.0: feed links widget

Just that this in this version, you don´t have to install nothing, just click where stated in this Singpolyma Post:

Feed Links Widget

From the man who gave us the Rss referrers tip and this Bannner above (that needs a urgent redesign!). he is now bringing us a 3 columns Sand Dollar layout with some pre-installed Hacks up for the taking if you like that design.



Sand Dollar template hacked for blogger beta

The template also count with the nifty Bloggeratto´s Hovering Peek-a-boo blogger Navbar wich even if it is one of the simplest hacks ever, it is one of the coolest.. :P

So, enjoy.

I got to test Plugoo almost a month ago and i was very impressed with the service at the moment i tried it:

It is the simplest, well designed,more straight forward and lightest Flah based Chat Embedable i had seen.

Ad mon top of that one of the prettiest and more enjoyable minimalistic websites i have seen in the web 2.0 scene.

And today one month later it still is.

Plugoo supports One-To-One chat with your visitors and offline/busy status messages that you can choose to recive either in your E-mail or in the IM service account.

Because that is the unique twist this service have, you can use your regular Im client (yahoo,MSN and Gtalk) or your prefered Web Multi IM and be able to recive the messages of your readers that way.

The only installation it required besides adding the flash code to your blog is that you add the Plugoo Bot Chat provider as your friend in your selected IM service.

Yeah, i know what you are thinking: "that sounds awesome"

It has a catch, and that catch is the deal breaker for me:

The chat is not only a one-on-one chat, it is a One-At-Once Chat.

You are only able to chat with one reader at a time, if you are chatting with a reader the plugoo will show as busy for the other visitors, if they send you a message, depending on your selection, it will be forwarded to your E-mail or will be put on hold until you end your ongoing conversation at that moment.

But if you are a very low traffic Blog it is a good option since it the client is so light and well adjustable that you will get in love with it´s simplicity.





I just hope it would support one-on-one multiple visitor Chat, that sure would make me forget about MeeboMe for the time being.

So please, Pluggo, fix that, i loved the concept. may i suggest a Clone Sequence for multiple Visitor one-on-one chats, thisw sequence was used by a lot of people years ago, it consisted in replicating yourself in someone IM account.

The start up is based in some part of france and it is still in Private Beta, you can as for a account at the site if you are interested in it:

Plugoo

A very quick and tiny tip explained by Annie that was provided by one of her readers:


Blogger Beta: Using Widgets for your Header

This for when any of you want to get into a non-traditional blog layout design.

Well, just jundging by your visits, messages and e-mails, a lot of you want me to do the next following things:

1.-Give more How-To´s, Slacker Style.
2.-Post A Lot More
3.-Continue With The Proposed New Threads
4.-Answer Questions In-Blog?
5.-Give More Original Content.

To what i must answer:

You Ask, I Deliver..

That would be all.

One of the most important focus of web 2.0 is Info Management, how to manage and interact with all information you can access while being online.

From that point on, the only thing that changes is the kind of information managed, in this case is all about News Management, news management is something everyone has to cope with in one way or other, some people want to be well informed, others want different versions from the same information and other need the information as reference, be either for a research, quick journalism check ups or Blogging of course.

Becuase with scoopr, you can track the news you are interested in (scoop this) knowing that any news in the front page is worthy of it without fearing, vote fraud, false buzz, etc.

www.Scoopr.net, is just that, a way to manage your news in a constant never ending stream of content.

And if you need the official explanation of what scoopr is:

Scoopr is an automated service that analyzes news articles from over 4,000 different sources. We then analyze the article to find out the story behind it. Then we show you what story is getting the most press...

Scoopr is still at Private Alpha stage, so, it is still in a lot of motion from being in final form in what features will be, but is looks, and feels solid the idea may not seems that original, but the execution is everything so it is worth to check out and join.

Right now, profiles, comments, rss feeds and the main funtionality of the service are rock solid and ready.






So, that is it, the only thing i can say is that i like it. i will be following the start up progress and that if you are into News tracking, then Scoopr is just what you had been waiting form in one form or another.

You can score a invitation if you go to the Scoopr page and leave your e-mail:

Scoopr

This post series continues from this post

Now is time to the more focused points in this matter:

Part 2: The Internals

I.-Looking At Blogger From A Outsider View

Aditya posted a very on par post piece to what the comments from Sinpolyma stated already.

I am quite surprised they don´t get to see the bigger picture here beyond what it is there.

A quote from Aditya post worth to mark as the idea behind the post itself would be:

True, the update came in late, and following the posts on Bloggeratto, it seems like Blogger is planning another update (Avatar calls it Blogger v3.0). What more can we ask for? Updates upon updates, which seem to be going in the right direction. Why do we then call the update underwhelming?

To what i must respond:

Because IT IS, the funny thing with/in the Wordpress debacle with Blogger, even considering that the free wordpress version is a closed platform in the sense of the "Code-It-Yourself" like Blogger wich allows that complete freedom is that it revolves around the theory vs practice of it:

True, Blogger can be coded into a huge lot of things, i have tried that myself and it´s quite great, in Blogger v2.0 it got the Bleet almost 3 years to have something worthy of the potential Blogger always had, and by the announcemnt of Blogger v3.0, there were unfinished hacks by the bleet, that made v2.0 on par with 90% of what Blogger v3.0 has, making a landmark about how powerfull the Blogger Community can be when focused on something.

But even then, this does not reflect in practice at all, because even with all the stuff that got out to be in the open, the ease of use/ the installation of it/ manteinance in some cases stopped in their tracks most of the potential users that prefered not to make the integrations of such user powered features.

Blogger didn´t helped either, they never showed a continue interest to support what the Bleet was offering or showcase the best of it, also never provided with sufficient documentation to encourage Blogger Development.

And this is where practice vs theory enters and win.

All of this is a reality in wordpress, the platform encourges plugins since they can be used right away, and i think that is why they don´t bother with a open code option for the free version, they want people to produce plugins, and they of course want people to upgrade (hell i wish there was a Blogger pro version, i would gladly pay to have a better Blogger), they are now offering very easy domain synching, a lot of plugin documentation, they encourage plugins, and just to put things into perspective, most of the cool tech people in the web have wordpress blogs and not Blogger blogs and what makes it even more surprising is that Wordpress has a piss little userbase compared to Blogger.....

Yes, the new Blogger is in the right path, but it is becuase they started to copy what wordpress does, and not even in the full way, just in a still very cautious way.

Of course that the new one click widget creation is the response to wordpress plugins, but damn, give us more documentation to work from.

That is where i fail to understand too.

Right now, the money in web 2.0 is not only in advertising and traffic but mindshare, i mean, mindshare plus traffic is what is driving the prices of adquisition right now, if it were just cold hard profits potential youtube would have been snatched at a range of 300-500 millions wich was his true potential bold worth and not the completely blown out of proportion 1650 millions, that of course was not handed in direct money but in stock.

So, as Robert Scoble says, how on earth a company like Google that owns google video and now youtube has a extreme lack of video tutorials and video PR?, how on earth if they want to put adsense drive money from Blogger they really don´t even try to really push profits of it?..

If they did, there would be a Adsense for Blogger blog, with videos and pr blogging making the rounds, and i assure you that it would increase profits almost overnight.

This also is tru for every single other service that google offers.

So, if they are pointing out that Blogger don´t makes enough moneny, is THEIR OWN FAULT.

If they look at themselves and say "sheesh, Blogger don´t gets really valuable mindshare now", it is also Google own fault becuase they have done almost nothing to really exploit profits from Blogger besides some poor inertia implementations.

Blogger as i see it is a true untapped source of rolling cash and yet Google fails to see it and do something about it.

just as a note, if Blogger were put to move real money, it coud have a economy as big as Myspace has now in just a year.

I mean, as i started this point, if you look Blogger from a outsider view it just don´t adds up to what it could be. and that is where the problem starts.

I bet if you put Blogger to a internet newbie, they would never guess Blogger is owned by Google.

II.-Development Hell

Blogger v2.0 resides and even now is destined to die in development hell, it is really like a Platform that never got finished, it is a Fucking frankestein, it sure can do almost anything if you know how, but the inside knowledge of it you need to do so, is way beyond the bar the average used can tolerate, many would say even beyond what advanced users can tolerate some times.

Here are some of the things that Blogger v2.0 never finished during it´s time and that stopped in a eternal limbo, and that SHOULD be reactivated for development for Blogger v3.0 if they plan to truly change Blogger:

1.-AudioBlogger (AudioBlogging)

It now has been declared finally dead after being a zombie for over 3 years.. no, you didn´t read wrong. it´s development stopped moving 3 years ago.

When Evan Williams sold Blogger to Google for peanuts, he did it with what i am now very sure must have been some of the most intriguing undisclosed terms ever.

While he remained at Blogger he took Audioblogger from being provided by AudioPost to be provided as a licensed service by himself to google, almost in a semi-official at the side development, that later when Evan williams decided to left Google he turned it into a research pool to build Odeo from in terms of the idea.

Audioblogger service stood the same way since the day it was implemented without any change. now that we know it was managed by Evan williams under a lined out contract we can understand why it never got upgraded to something else.

But now what?

We are in the fall of 2006 and how can it be that Blogger don´t has a native Audioblogging feature or made a stretch in showcasing certain services for that reason you could use directly from blogger if they didn´t want to support it?

Blogger v3.0 is sill something that is full of questions as where the platform will go and do next, but that is why i don´t like announcement to be so specific as they did it with "Blogger v3.0 is complete", becuase it reminds me how Blogger after the Google buyout stood static for a year in that department.

2.-Profile System: pages, database and search engine

I have the serious belief that Blogger and Google dropped the ball there,big time.

In a time where a thing like MySpace can get to 120 million users and drive a economy of almost of over 500 million dollars based on one of the worst products in the entire web that got his start as customizable profile pages, one must wonder what would have happened if Blogger continued development for it back when they implemented the profile system.

Even with all the competition in the market Blogger could still make a dinch to it if they wanted.

Add module editing with the ability to add code,add friends networking, profile comments, and profile customization and the just like that:

BOOM you got a great Blogger social network to complement Blogger that would get millions and millions of users right away.

But so far the profile pages are really just a outdated ornament for Bloggers when they could be put to good use.

3.- Blogger Photos

Ok, it´s cool to have photo hosting direcly built in from the Blogger Editor, but why i can´t control the photos?

Zero controls for them, no way to know how much space your account has, no way to order the photos, to synch the photos, to edit them, no nothing...

Why?, why is that you cannot manage them?

4.-Blogger Editor

How can it be that some of the third party blog editors are way better in a lot of ways than the Blogger editor?.

Why we can´t have a Blog editor as cool as WriteToMyblog for Blogger?..

5.-Comments

This is one of the areas where a lot of features have been added to blogger blogs, but why oh why it lacks the most important feature of all?

Comment management from the dashboard

This way, the Bloggers that like to mantain their comments open to anyone could edit mistakes, delete spam in batch, and even move comments where they should be....

III.-Reactivated Development

So far the only thing that got rectivated from the internal services that complement Blogger was Blogsearch.

Blog search was one of the most flaky things that ever graced Blogger v2.0, and that is saying a lot i must tell you.

Right now it has been fixed and running so far really great.

IV.-The Brand

Until the arrival of the new Blogger, Blogger PR and support were HORRIBLE.

None would give you the time of the day. almost like if it were being run by a single person that cannot be bothered to show his face becuase he is just too busy.

Right now, this have changed a lot. for the first time ever the activity of the official Blogger blog has light up into regularity, reponses from Blogger support now sport a machine generated response (but a response no less!!), and Blogger employes make the rounds in others blogs and the forums, Blogger documentation is getting better and they have reinstated a need for feedback that shaped in the form a of a paid survey feedback study they will conduct for that effect.

The Google Brand is still not felt enough inside Blogger, and integrations with other Google services are not yet happening, just to mention the most noteworthy:

1.-Picasa

I don´t know why they bought picasa and then touted it with Blogger back in the day and never expanded into it.

How it is possible the official Blogger blog has to announce Photo Blogging support from a third party photo service owned by the competition because they can´t announce their own since it don´t works for Blogger v3.0

(up to this Moment the picasa integration with Blogger v3.0 is awful)

The rumored Picasa revamp still don´t finds it way to happen.

and any update in features and integration is followed by some chirping noises into the night

2.-Google Analytics

Talk about a unfocused company as even google accepted when the CEO asked the Google Labs to not churn so many crap developments and concentrate in impoving what there is already out and broken.

So, why proper metrics have not been offered by google and integrated into blogs in some form or fashion?

Only they know it

3.-Google Video

One of the reasons Google video never really took off is because it was used 90% as a repository of copyrighted content or as a second source of already uploaded YouTube videos.

The service ws a mess and one of the worst Google Products in terms of image the company has ever produced.

Things could have been turned different if a integration with Blogger had been made when it was announced, but Google were too slow, even adding direct search to the main page of google was added like two months before they decided they have failed and that they needed to buy Youtube So Myspace and Yahoo didn´t eated them alive.

If original content would have been sprouting of it from the beggining, another story would have been told right now.

But you already know what happened and how Google also failed to gain interest to their video store initiative, wich is the main reason why they are looking for a deal with apple.

So, that is the story of all the internals, so i will be seeing all of you in the final part of this post series that delivers my very detailed look into Blogger.

Oh and if you think i am the only one looking into why it is underwhelming,i can quote other 10 posts about it, but if you want a more mainstream source, here you go:

Let Blogger Free from Valleywag

Maybe i should try to join that blog.. :P

To be concluded

Nothing really groundbreaking of a an announcement just that they have moved on, and they really want you to move on to blogger v3.0 wich makes a lot of sense giving how this thing will be dead next year.

the only thing i find funny is that there is clarifying note that says:

You can still create a new account on the old Blogger if you need to claim a mobile blog, join a team blog, or are using a language we haven’t added to the new version of Blogger.

Funny becuase they don´t tell you how, if you enter Blogger.com it will want you to do the account in the new blogger, i could find out but, i think that is where the message of the note relies:

"why bother to do a new Blogger v2.0 account now that Blogger v3.0 is an option?"

Back some time ago Hoctro did his first Table of Contets hack, and now he had upgraded into a more fleshed out form hack like this:



This is done by making a tweaked clone of the native archive widget in Blogger v3.0, so if you are interested in something like this you only need to go here:

Introducing the "Table Of Contents" Widget (from its twin brother "Archived" Widget)

One note i must make is that this widget is best suited to go for item/post pages more than in the main. since i think having in the main in the form is it, it a little of a overkill.

Snapshots?, yeah snapshots or headshots if you prefer, is the kind of photo shot you are using for a Profile photo if are familiar with having your photo in the profile of several services online.

and this where Mypictr comes in, it helps you to make your snapshots easier to use in several services without you having to edit them again and again after using the service becuase it shows you a window frame of how it would show in other services, that way you can make a snapshot to work in every service in one go with very easy photo editing tool to use.

MyPictr

oh, and if this don´t convice you enough you can go to this post from my friend Efendi:

Never Been This Easy !

Where he shows you how he did his Pictr.

The Purple Cat Called Moggy is back with a new Hack for all of you to use if anyone is feeling like doing it of course.

Back when i Buzzed PurpleMoggy the first thing i noticed was his 4 in 1 search box:



So i knew it was only a matter of time until he posted how to get one, and that time is now so if you feel like having it here is the post where the good Cat (pun intended) can help you out with that:

Search Box: 4-in-1

*Update*:

P.moggy (he is a cool cat you know?) just let me know that he made another tutorial for the 4 in 1 search box, so if you din´t really made it with the first tutorial try this one instead:

Search Box: 4-in-1 [A Better Tutorial]

Yeah i know, what a fugly Banner right?.

But it comes from a good blog so that even it out for me.

Imessengr has a post with the instructions so you can have a list with the recent reffers for your blog.

This works for both v2.0 and v3.0 Blogs even if hist post states is for Blogger v3.0.

Show recent referrers on blogger beta


and to access the data just online via a web landing page or grad a rss feed of it just go here after you have added the code to your blog:

Reeferss.com

I know, i know, i am quite behind in my posting schedule, but lets forget about that and let´s get it on.

Part 1: The Peripherial Value

In this post i plan to respond to that question i have recived by e-mail, chat and also in the comments of this blog.

Last week it was announced that Blogger v3.0 was now a feature set complete build and that well, that was it by Blogger Buzz to what i went and said O RLY?,etc,etc.

that exchange of words can be read directly : Here

Post and Comments.

I was not the only one who thought that way of course and i will not be the last, so lets start with the direct concerns/opinions pressed to me on it:

Singpolyma fist comment was:

I don't see what everyone's big stink is about here... What happened to all the things we love about Blogger BETA? Let me list just a few:

1) Categories! The #1 request and hack has finally come!
2) A way better widget-definition language (different, but definitely better in almost all cases)
3) Nicer archive widgets
4) Change fonts/colours and link lists with no code for those non-techies
5) HTML widget option to bridge some hacks and the non-geek world
6) Comment feeds (total and per-post)
7) Category feeds too, duh

To name a few. They hit us with all of this at once in the original BETA release and we were overwhelmed and overjoyed. Why say now that they've ironed out many bugs that it's not ready? It's past ready. There's some things I wish were different (peek-a-boo allowed in code, inline comment form allowed to work, XHTML compliance), but overall it is more than 100% better than Blogger Classic, and as always more than 300% better than any other free blogging service that I have seen.

And my answer was:

"I don't see what everyone's big stink is about here"

well, maybe you don´t see it, but since i have used every single one of the top options in blogging platforms and even some experimental ones, i will tell you what we still need in a following post.

(maybe is the thing that i test too much software all the time?)

now, all that you have mentioned ( not to be harsh harsh) but is irrelevant, because is the minimum expected compared to what the other blogging platforms already have.

In this thing new web 2.0 game, is all about the peripherials for the blogger platform should have and the options it should give, and how Blogger has a very broken brand in terms to empower their users besides freedom, in this case it´s almost like the beatles song "all you need is love" just replacing love with freedom, freedom is no longer enough when you have tht 90% of the user will not be able to code their way in

Gve us option to upgrade, give us integration, give us a strong brand, give us peripherials...

About that last bit, that refers in the way for example wordpress does things with their plugins and how they actually work with other companies to bring special plugins for their platform, how the community is formed that allows a more widespread distribution when a plugins gets popular, i could really go on and on.

I know Blogger from hardly a month after it was launched, and before it being bought by google it was even selling domains, it was testing audioblogger for later integrations and even was preparing photo handling (wich got used for the ghost like brandless service of blogger photo hosting) and even was developing into future podcasting, wich is no surprise why after evan williams left blogger he formed Odeo leaving with those very ideas and even bought out the oportunity of hosting audioblogger that originally was hosted by audiopost in order to test the waters.

I know Blogger is changing for good, never before in the blogger v2.0 the blogger buzz blog started to be so active again, never before blogger employes gave a step forward to the users and never before they seemed to be eager of feedback (given the recent google survey call for it) and never before the company offered actual apologies to their users left and right.

should i stop throwing them punches?

NO WAY, we must never let a corporation to rest in their laurels, we must push them around hard in order they don´t stop innovating, more to a company that takes that in their motto.

There are already lots of blogges that send too much kisses to the B.

I Really think, you are just way too good, you are just such a nice guy about everything and that i got you in the highest regards. you truly have a heart of gold man..

:D


i will explain a point i made in my response, and that is the one "peripherials"

this can be percived as not as important as the blog features and dashboard features all by themselves, but it is important, peripherials and how they spread into a network are what mantains a platform popularity and thriving becuase it gives it something beyond the initial core concept of it.

not even a week before this is that Phydeaux3 discovers the new widget spreading documentations that is going to give life to a new way of spreading hacks, mods, tweaks and add ons into Blogger, this seems the direct response to Wordpress Plugins that can also be made into One Click experiences so ANYONE in the most full sense of the word can add something extra to their blog.

This not only helps non-techies or Rookies, this also help the common Blogger user along to the power user and gives the Bleet an option on how spread their exploits to others faster and even removing the need to explain the how it works while doing so.

Sigpolyma then replies:

While I see some of that (one must not let the company think that they are done and can stop working now), I still contend that Blogger (and especially BETA) is more feature-complete than any other free blogging service (it is not fair to compare to WordPress, since that only works in a feature-complete way when you have your own hosting...)

I guess the question would be, if there's another service that whips Blogger why are you still here? ;)

And to that i Reply here:

The thing is that Blogger is Still the number one Blogging platform in the true sense of the word, even if this now matters less and less with the recent upgrades of the hublogs platforms like spaces, the very soon Yahoo360 renewal and looming MySpace upgrade that are now dominating over Blogger in terms of spread.

In the true-Blogging world, Blogger still has to raise the bet even more if it wants to stop wordpress,movable and Lj to continue their advances.

But the most important thing is that is a matter of Brand. this was recently sensed with the Blogger v3.0 being now as the main option already to create a new blog and the way blogger is changing for good that i guess has to be more with Blogger getting more Google integrated that with a sudden change of heart in the way they were treating the service.

As at one time Greg (from Freshblog fame) said to me:

It´s all about google having content to search from and to sell ads to.

(to simplify his message)

wich they could do in a more efficent way with blogger from a long ago if they wanted, so that is why i always said that there must have been something in the original Blogger buy out contract that made this not viable to Google until now.

Blogger from the profit way of view is a mine of gold untapped, so Google, mine away like you want, just give us more features or some more options to make them ourselves.

Now, around the question why i stick with blogger, and more why stick with a Blogger related Blog,this is something i get asked a lot lately, i was asked to make a internet tech blog instead, because lots of people think that is way more exciting.

Then others tell me that if i moved to wordpress, i could get hell of a lot more popular and do more for it.

So why stick with Blogger?:

My response to that is still composed the same way that before, with 3 simple reasons:

1.-I like challenges.

I think they are more interesting, and i like the chaotic freedom Blogger offers, and i do reiterate, the moment Blogger stops being a open platform, the moment i would walk out of it in no time aiming for Wordpress and Wallop instead.

2.-There is not something amazing enough for me to Back out of Blogger.

No,not even full wordpress.

3.-I am a very stubborn man

Hahahah, no explanations needed here do we?

Manas Comments:

Now, I don't think that by announcing that "Blogger Beta is feature complete", Blogger is saying they will not be adding any new features.

They are saying that Blogger Beta now has all the normal features that the old Blogger had.So we can expect them to keep on adding new features..

As Blogger Help says..

"All this is just the beginning, with much more to come. Dynamic serving will provide us with some interesting new ways to sort and search blogs by topic or keyword, for instance.We've got some other fun possibilities in mind as well, like fancier template editing and more posting features. The sky's the limit, so stay tuned for more features and updates!"

Errr, sorry Mans, but you are wrong.

The feature complete states just that, that this version is feature complete, and the set of funtions for it to officially launch it is complete.

Now, about the adding of new features, when i said they will never add a feature more to it?

but since you have no sense of Blogger history, let me tell you how it was with v2.0, and why i am hesitat to accept Blogger word for it until i see it for myself:

1.-Back when Blogger v2.0 was launched Blogger took over a year to launch even announcemets of new features, let alone add them.

2.-Blogger is very weird about new features so far, i mean, The Bleet discovered the RSS feed feature along with tons of other features, if it werent for us, no one would have ever known about them since they were never introduced in a Official form.

3.-Singpolyma is right in the angle that the feature set as it is more than what the rest has in true Blogging platforms even if it lacks a hell lot of other things, in that part is gonna be hard for Blogger to feel compelled to add new features to it.

But, there is hope considering how Blogger has changed for good, so i would love they could prove me wrong.

This post continues here

The recent development in the Blogger platform is now pointing at us with this new way of reducing the effort of Blogger users the work of having to add widgets to their blog to almost Zero responds to the nature of this new blogger itself.

The new template languague is really of a very different kind besides it being dynamic, after this past months checking the code of the hacks that came/come out every week and the blogger templaes as they are, i can see now, how the bigger picture completes on the concept of Blogger v3.0 being a widget funtinality driven template languague, that after getting used to it, it now seems almost as easy to modificate as Blogger v2.0 is with the difference that the basic stuff can be assisted now by Blogger as it is and also by the third party developers providing esay to spread widget of their servces to the Bloggerosphere.

This also post a new way to do things for The Bleet, this means that a lot of hacks can be addeds as a one click widget for Blogger, something that really should explode the spread for a determined Bleet widgetizing.

The questions continues to be how widgets can be stadarized in a way that gets to benefit all just for starters.

Yep, Ramani is back.

And with the very recent development of One Click Widget Aggregation for Blogger v3.0 outed by Phydeaux3, i guess Ramani was looking for something to test this new knowledge and also add a litte service for his ever growing up list of Bloggerosphere services at the same time.

So, he took Annie Bluesky Random Quote Generator Mod and made a one click version widget of it.

So, now you can have this funtionality in your template with just one click.

How is that for convenient?

Random message widget (no Edit HTML!)

I wanted to capture the intire message of the Blogger Buzz post, so there you have it, if they took a chance to make another post even if it was already stated in the post before is because:

1.-Not many people were switching and it was lost in the actual main message of the post

2.-there has been some reclaims that it didn´t work, worked badly or people are clueless

Wich is not Blogger fault, you must check that your provider allows FTP, and if you founded one that don´t allows it, well, frankly your provider SUCKS, so go in the search for other.

I would recommend you some, but after one of my prefered host shot itself in the foot, i prefer not to do it.

Now, if you host provides FTP support, check if they also allow SFTP, if they do, use the later.

So, there you go, don´t be a second rate citizen in the Bloggerosphere and UPGRADE.