Apparently I wasn’t on the randomly selected short list of bloggers to be included in the Blogger beta upgrade. <\/p>\n
The list of new features<\/a> is impressive enough. <\/p>\n Looks like categories will finally be an option (as opposed to just manual Technorati tagging), and there are more flexible layout options (that won’t be of much use to me since I don’t use a default template). I also see that they’ve added password protection, though I’m not entirely sure if you’d have to lock the whole blog or if you could just lock specific posts (I think it’s the former, which is kind of a bummer). And locking your blog looks complicated, because in order for people to view the blog, they have to have a Google account. <\/p>\n According to this<\/a>, the biggest change is the introduction of dynamic pages, which will eliminate the need to manually publish once you’ve edited your template or made any changes to the blog. That’s helpful. <\/p>\n Seems like there are some simple upgrades they should include in the next round. I’d like to see a jump function for long posts you don’t want sitting on the front page. It would also be cool to offer a “recent comments” thread in the sidebar without having to gank the html from elsewhere (I wouldn’t actually use that function, as my sidebar is too long anyway). I’d like to see some three-column default layouts (so I could steal the code). <\/p>\n I haven’t made the leap from Blogger to another service just yet for one reason. Okay, two: It’s free and I can do what I want with my template. That’s basically it. If the free WordPress<\/a> service let you dink with the template, I’d be there will bells on. But I’m sticking with Blogger, and I’ll stay with Blogger as long as they keep making the service better.<\/p>\n And, I guess, as long as they let me on their Beta bandwagon.<\/p>\n