  | December, 2010 | | | | Hello Blogger user!
We know it’s been a little while since you’ve heard directly from us, so here we are again to spread the latest product news and updates from the Blogger Team.
Things have been very busy over here recently, as we’ve been working really hard to develop a number of new features while also building out new teams in global offices. Over the last few months we’ve put a lot of energy towards turning your suggestions into improvements to Blogger, and just in case you missed something along the way, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite updates for you to check out.
And while you’re busy reading through this list, we’ll be putting the final touches on the next round of exciting stuff. Make sure to stay tuned for 2011; we have big plans in store. | |  | Features | Comment Filtering Hopefully you’ve noticed the new Comments tab in your dashboard, which we added over the summer as part of our upgrade to the comment system. This Comment Inbox is a centralized place where you can manage all of your comment-related tasks, like delete published comments, manage comments that have been flagged as spam, and moderate awaiting comments (if you’ve enabled Comment Moderation).
We’ve also started analyzing all posted comments in our system, and are automatically classifying the ones we believe to be spam. Similar to Gmail’s spam filtering, you can help us improve our classifiers by telling us whether the comments we’ve caught are actually spam. |
Stats The Stats tab is another recent addition to the dashboard, and is the hub for all your blog’s realtime traffic data. Pageviews, reader location, browser types, popular posts, and referral sources are just a few of the pieces of information we’re constantly collecting for each blog.
If you want to show off your blog’s traffic data to your readers, we’ve also built Blog Stats and Popular Posts gadgets which you can add to your template. These can be added from the Gadget Directory at any time, and have a variety of configurable options to change the display and data layout. |
Background Image Upload Earlier in the summer we released our Template Designer to all users, and asked for your feedback about what other features we could add to make it even better. By far the top request was the ability to upload your own background image, and we’re happy to say that this feature is now live within the Template Designer.
To upload your own background image to your blog, simply click on the Background section within the Template Designer. |
Mobile BlogSpot We realize that more and more users are accessing the web on smartphones, and we want to make sure that blogs still look nice when viewed on these smaller screens. We’ve put a lot of work into creating a mobile version of BlogSpot, which will automatically detect if a blog is accessed on a smartphone and then display a mobile-optimized version.
Mobile BlogSpot is live now on Blogger in Draft, and can be enabled from the Settings | Email & Mobile tab. From there you can also check out a mobile preview version of your blog to see what it will look like. |
Web Fonts The Google Web Fonts team has made great progress on expanding font options across the web, especially for non-Latin alphabets like Cyrillic and Greek. We’ve taken advantage of their work and now offer 40 new Web Fonts in the Template Designer on Blogger in Draft. For the full list, check out our Help Center article. |
| | | From Our Friends Other helpful services recommended the Blogger Team | $100 Coupon for AdWords! With Google AdWords you can attract new Blogger readers at the exact moment they’re searching for you. Google AdWords is the online advertising program that shows 3-line ads next to Google Search results. Just choose the search terms your potential readers are likely to use, write your ad, and decide how much you’re willing to pay per click and per day.
To kick off the holiday season we're giving new advertisers a $100* coupon to promote your blog and boost your reader numbers. Redeem your $100 coupon code now to try AdWords: 59LJ-SKYQ-GNQK-5LTR-Z6PJ
Offer expires January 31, 2011.
*Full coupon Terms and Conditions found here. Promotion is only valid for new advertisers |
OpenSky The folks at OpenSky have built a great service which connects you with small e-tailers to write about their products on your personal blog. You can search for the products and services which interest you, and then pass those recommendations to your readers while splitting all profits 50/50.
The best part is that OpenSky takes care of all of the order processing, fulfillment, and customer service. It’s one of the best affiliate programs we’ve come across, and it’s a great chance to help your readers discover interesting and relevant products. |
| Your Feedback is always welcome | | As always, our ears are open to your feedback. Many of the features and developments covered in this newsletter are the result of comments, surveys, tweets, and other feedback that you’ve passed along. So please keep it coming!
And finally, we have a quick 30-second survey about our monetization features for those interested in passing along your feedback. | | | 2010 Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View CA 94043 Unsubscribe: We sent you this email because you have indicated that you are willing to receive Blogger feature announcements. If you do not wish to receive emails of this nature in the future, please visit your account’s Notification Preferences Page (http://www.blogger.com/edit-notification.g - Google Accounts login required). Remove the check beside ‘Feature announcements,’ and click ‘Save.’ | |
Here is a cool twist on some old parts. Take some motorcycle parts and making them into a table lamp. And there’s no telling what adventures these lamps may have had in their prior life. Retired components from different types of vintage motorcycles make up these sturdy creations. The one pictured shows a Yamaha spring, shock absorber and brake rotor and a Kawasaki transmission gear— all welded together to add a bit of quirky moto flair to any room. The lamp stands approximately 18 inches tall with a base that’s about 11 inches across. It’s built to last and weighs a lot. So, don’t drop it on your foot! Each lamp is handmade from available parts so yours will differ slightly from the photo due to the nature of recycled parts. FYI, the shade is NOT included. And if you have some custom requests, just ask as a custom lamp can be made out of parts from the bike(s) of your choice. The builder John Ryland also has a cool blog named (classified moto) that features some unique bikes he’s building/built in his garage. Check him out 
