With the war over blog software heating up, it looks as if Google has released two new features that will make Blogger fans rejoice (and hopefully catch up on some sleep).
The first feature Google released was an ability for Blogger users to spice up their blog rolls. Previously users were able to simply list a link to their favorite sites on their sidebar, just like any other blog platform out there.
Now, Google has enabled users to not only link favorite sites from Google Reader to their blog, but post a “snippet” of content as well.
(Blogger in Draft) At its most basic, Blog List displays a list of links to your favorite blogs, with an optional icon. If you link to a blog with an Atom or RSS feed, however, the Blog List can show the date of the blog’s last update or even the title and snippet of its most recent post. […]
You add blogs to your Blog List by entering blog or feed URLs directly, or by importing subscriptions from Google Reader.
While this feature may not appeal to SEO nuts (as you get the same link love from regular blog rolls as you would from Google’s blog list), this feature may help your listed “friends” receive some extra traffic on their sites as readers may cue in towards an interesting post.
Google also unveiled another feature for Blogger–one which has been heavily requested ever since Google decided to relaunch Blogger.
(Blogger in Draft) We’ve often heard that sometimes you’d like to write a post now and have it automatically published at some time in the future. We listened, and are pleased to say that this feature is ready for you to try out on Blogger in draft. […]
Publishing a post in the future is pretty simple: in the post editor, reveal the Date and Time fields using the “Post Options” toggle and enter a post date and time that is in the future. When you then click the “Publish” button, your post will become “scheduled.” When the date and time of the post arrive, your post will be automatically published to your blog.
This feature is quite helpful, especially in todays day and age where time is almost becoming more important than money (especially to bloggers who have yet to “go pro” and work outside of cyberspace for their bread and butter).
Users have been seeking Google to implement this ability in Blogger for quite some time, and now they will be able to test it out in Blogger’s “beta grounds” over at draft.blogger.com.
