Because this blog covers many aspects and services associated with blogging, I’d like to outline a number of the new features that have been pushed out to the Beta version of Blogger, which have also been listed on the Blogger in Draft Blog.

These features were all announced on June 26th, 2008.

General Features Affecting Blogger in Draft

1. Blogger in Draft dashboard may now be set as the default area when signing in.
2. Google Gadget integration improved, with better editing of gadget preferences.
3. Dashboard area improved with new tweaks, including a new button style - “show all blogs’ toggle is now sticky.
4. Subscribe page element had “www.” added.
5. Blogger Dashboard now displays recent posts (in tabbed fashion) from both the regular and draft Blogger blogs.

Webmaster Tools Verification

[Source Post]

• This feature allows you to use Google Webmaster Tools with your Blogger blog.  You are now able to view information about your blog as Google’s search engine sees it - how often Google’s web crawlers visit your site, who links to your blog, what searches are used to find your site, and control how your page appears in the web results.
• These settings can be found by visiting the Blogger in Draft dashboard, then click on on the link to Webmaster Tools, found under the “Tools and Resources” area.  All your blogs are added to Webmaster Tools and verified automatically.

Star Ratings

[Source Post]

• You can now (without external tools) add star ratings to every post footer.  Enabling this feature is easy - go into the Layouts page and click the “Edit” link of the posts page and check “Show Star Ratings”.
• More notes on this feature can be found on the release post, linked above. 

Importing and Exporting

[Source Post]

• Another great feature, importing and exporting allows you to backup all your posts and comments into a single, Atom-formatted XML file, which allows easier backup.  
• You can then use the backups to import them back into your blog if you accidentally delete something or you blog is hacked.  
• To use the feature, go to the Settings > Formatting page, then go into the Blog Tools links area and either import or export your blog’s XML file.
• Upon importing, all the posts will become saved as “imported”, so you can choose which ones will be published.  
• Other Abilities: Merge two or more blogs into one, move individual posts from blog to blog, back up your blog to your own storage, move your blog somewhere else.
• Problems: Doesn’t backup blog settings or templates, can be confusing for first-time users fearing their data may be lost.

Embedded Comment Form

[Source Post]

• Comment forms can now display below posts, much like other blog systems.
• Change the format of your comments by going into the Settings > Comments area and choose either “Full Page”, “Pop-up Window”, or “Embedded below post”.  
• Works as normal with any other features, such as verification, that you may have enabled.

New Post Editor

[Source Post]

• New post editor is “more stable, compatible, predictable, and functional”.
• Focuses on image and raw HTML improvements
• Note: Autosave is disabled in the new post editor.
• Improved image handling - images appear as a thumbnail in the image dialog box, allowing you to upload several images at once, and then add them into your post at your convenience.
• Images will be placed at the cursor insertion point, instead of at the top of the post and drag and drop functionality is now enabled.
• Easy image resizing and removing.  (issues for Firefox 3 - need to double click to activate)
• Improved Raw HTML - allows you to insert breaks distinguishing different elements - tables, lists, scripts, styles, preformatted blocks, or objects, whereas before a
tag would have been inserted.  You can turn this feature off, a similar feature is available in WordPress.
• Other Features: Easy link editing, full Safari 3 support (Windows and Macintosh), new preview dialog for viewing posts in a similar format as what would appear on your blog, placeholder image for object tags.
• There are numerous missing features - spellcheck, video upload, Hindi transliteration, Bi-directional text controls, Toolbar for Edit HTML mode, FTP file upload, and enclosures, as well as Known Issues, so if you are uncomfortable using Beta tools, you may want to continue using the default editor.

Please use the “Source Post” links to view images and additional details about each feature, this post serves as an outline of them and a few of my thoughts.

Conclusion, Final Thoughts

I have taken a look at many of these features, and for the most part, they are performing as they were meant to, with some bugs here and there.  Each of these advancements helps the Blogger system distinguish itself from others, and improve the blogging experience for people who are just beginning to blog. From what I see, the Blogger team appears to be working more on usability and smaller features that puts it in line with other blog platforms and allow more flexibility for people using their own domains.

Leave your thoughts on these new enhancements (if you have chosen to use Blogger in Draft), whether you like them or would rather see more improvements to what is already included.

A second noteworthy update on Blogger was released - future posting for all accounts, not just for people opting to use Blogger in Draft.  This feature has been released after a month of testing by users using the Blogger “Beta” environment.  

To take advantage of the feature, follow these simple steps:

1. Sign in to your account and enter into a post.
2. Click the ‘Post Options’ toggle to show the “Post date and time” fields.
3. Type a date and time that’s in the future.
4. Hit the “Publish” button, and the post will become “scheduled”, and will be published when the date has been reached.

When a service comes out of “beta” mode, it typically means that the version has been tested and will work properly for most users.  This new feature is a great addition to Blogger.  As an avid WordPress users, this is a necessary feature for extending the possibilities of blogging when you are unable to blog at certain periods of time.

For more details about posting with this new feature, read the Blogger Buzz Blog.

Blogger rolled out a series of new features and bug fixes which should address some issues that users had.  The post may contain updates that were already released, however were not publicly announced.

Today’s Fixes:

• The “Add another image” link in the image upload box now works even if you haven’t filled in a URL.
• The labels field in the post editor autocompletes more predictably when one label starts with the same words as another.
• URLs in the Name / URL part of the comment form are now validated.
• Header fixes for the 897 and 565 templates.
• The draft / published / scheduled filters on the Edit Posts list now work reliably in Internet Explorer.
• Videos uploaded through Sony Ericsson phones now appear as enclosures in the blog’s Atom and RSS feeds, so they can be retrieved with a video podcast client.
• Miscellaneous typos and translations corrected.

Other Recent Changes:

• New blogs have OpenID commenting enabled by default.
• XFN rel="me" links between blogs and profiles.
• Adding more than 5 poll choices now works in Internet Explorer.
• The search box on the Edit Posts page is now available in all supported languages.
• The “www” redirect option is now available for custom domains that end in “.co.uk.”
• New “Related Resources” box on the Dashboard links to AdSense, Google Reader, and Picasa Web Albums.

[via Blogger Buzz]