Google updates Blogger software

SOFTWARE HOUSE Google has added five dynamic templates to its Blogger personal website software, making the most of AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3 to improve scrolling and interactivity.

The changes are only being previewed for now, but once in place they should make Blogger blogs more visually engaging. They include new layouts and infinite scrolling for making more content available with fewer clicks.

Blogger users can try out the changes themselves now by adding "/view" to the end of their blog URL or by having a look at any of the preview websites the firm has prepared.

Adding the "/view" text to a URL offers immediate results and in tests did improve the look of the websites that we visited and the speed with which images were delivered. However it mighty be most suited for those frustrated by the view and page limitations of Blogger, as it does radically alter pages.

For example, lists of posts are displayed in a nice sidebar with a button that indicates the number of comments included, which makes for a nice change on some tired looking basic template websites.

"We're previewing these templates early on so we can incorporate your feedback for a wider launch soon. At that time you'll be able to customize these templates and select one for your blog. Please let us know what you think!" wrote Antin Harasymiv, software engineer at Blogger.

Bloggers can turn off the view preview by visiting their settings. µ