Randy points out a detailed how-to at Hakuna Matata for those of us who want to use Google Sitemaps with Blogger, can't upload the verification file, and need to validate by inserting a meta tag. There are screencaps and a detailed 6-step how-to. Cool. See what happened when I validated this way, & check out a couple of tools that let you ping Google to declare your updates, in the Freshblog Archive.

Filed in: sitemaps blogs blogging blogtech google

Steve Rubel notices that Technorati's "see what people are saying right now"
is making it into the Google search results for tag pages, & suggests that this will up the general interest in tag search results....

Filed in: technorati google

My occasional trawl through the digests of the Blogger User's Yahoo Group reveals an interesting outcome of the old-school "stack up default blogger tags in a funky and unexpected way" modification strategy. Want to show a comment count in your sidebar recent posts menu? Bob Afifi contributed the following stack o' tags to the forum:

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Previous Posts</h2>
<ul id="recently">
<bloggerpreviousitems>
<li><a href="<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$">"><$BlogPreviousItemTitle$></a><a class="comment-link" href="<$BlogItemCommentCreate$">"<$BlogItemCommentFormOnclick$>>
(<$BlogItemCommentCount$>)</a></li>
</bloggerpreviousitems>
</ul>

& they seem to get the job done just great. Very cool!

Filed in: blogger blogspot blogtech comments blogger-hacks

Freshblog and 3spots are proud to announce the launch of a new blog tool service - PopMarks!


"Pushing all the right buttons"

The idea behind this service is to provide blog publishers with a single button that unifies the full range of available social bookmarking, search, translation and related services. As previously discussed, social bookmarking buttons have some drawbacks, but we've tried to address those concerns. For starters, keeping track of the seemingly endless stream of new services is difficult and thankless - so we do it for you. And while many people who bookmark will have bookmarklets on their browsers, it is difficult for these to work unless you are on a post page. If there is more than one post on the page (such as an archive or main page) then these browser-based buttons usually won't work. Also, if you use multiple bookmarking services (perhaps for different content types) then a suitable choice of buttons that already captures relevant tags and text is easier to work with than fumbling with a bunch of bookmarklets, re-entering the same data again and again.

Features

• A single attractive button
• Friendly popup contains a thorough selection of bookmarking services, search, translation and other tools
• The list is actively maintained with new services added automatically
• Tags and free-text annotations already pre-populated
• Filtering of offered buttons to avoid clutter
• Works with both URL and JavaScript-type services
• Flexible presentation with different button styles and colours
• Free, open, extendible ... and very hackable

You can see PopMarks in action over at 3spots and SpeccySux. The source for those buttons is the giant list of over two hundred services (and growing!) maintained on delicious by 3spots. As new services come online, they will be put in this list for your readers' use. You'll notice that we've tagged the bookmarks themselves - this means that you can choose to show readers only certain subsets using tags like spanish, search, translation or community.

PopMarks works by fetching a subset of this list of blogging services from delicious and rendering them in an attractive popup box on the page whenever the button is pressed. Readers can then avail themselves of any of the services before closing the popup. PopMarks pre-populates (where possible) the bookmarking and search forms with information such as post title, post URL, blog feed, blog title, blog URL, tags (found in the tags="rel" prior link) and text annotation (either user-selected text or the first paragraph in the post).

To see these last two features in action, go to the 3spots blog, click PopMarks in the post footer and then click on the BlinkList icon (). You'll see the tags and notes (first para) appear in the form. Close the box. Now, repeat, but first select some text somewhere in the post. Neat! The selected text appears in the notes field. We'll be rolling this out across all services that support it over time.

Installation

To install PopMarks on your blog, you'll need to follow these steps.

1. Put this code into the header section of your blog template (ie before the </head>):
   
   <script type="text/javascript">
// set PopMarks parameters
popAnchor = 'popmarks+set3';
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src=" http://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/popmarks/popmarks-v02.js">
</script>


2. In the template, wrap the body of the post in a div element with class of "post-body". It might look like this:
   
   <div class="post-body"><$BlogItemBody$></div>


3. Put this in your post footer where you want the activation button to appear (after your listing of post tags):
   
   <script type="text/javascript">
makeMark('<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>', '<$BlogItemTitle$>', '<BlogDateHeader><$BlogDateHeaderDate$></BlogDateHeader>', '');
</script>


4. Check that it's working (just use preview - no need to save and republish at this point).


5. Customise the appearance and settings to suit your blog. Check out the first 20 or so lines of the script: If you don't like the default settings for any of these parameters, you can change them in the header section. Visit http://del.icio.us/ycc2106/popmarks. Rather than listing a hundred buttons, find a suitable tag for your blog, eg popmarks+spanish or popmarks+search. Also, check out the different style of activation buttons available.

For example, suppose you wanted the popup box to be dark green, only include German services, have the title of the button be "Benutzen ein Werkzeug!" and use the second style of activation button (in yellow):

<script type="text/javascript">
// set PopMarks parameters

blogUrl = 'http://mydomain.com/blog';
blogFeed = 'http://mydomain.com/blog/atom.rss';
boxColBG = 'darkgreen';
popAnchor = 'popmarks+german';
promptStr = 'Benutzen ein Werkzeug!";
activURL = 'http://www.geocities.com/ycorret/popmarks-icons/popmarks2-yellow24.png';
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" src=" http://ghill.customer.netspace.net.au/popmarks/popmarks-v02.js">
</script>

That's it - you're done!

Other Blogging Platforms

PopMarks will work with other blogging platforms, such as WordPress and TypePad. The only difference is that you'll need to specify the template tags using the local syntax. For example, where Blogger uses <$BlogItemTitle$> for its item title, WordPress uses <?php wp_title(); ?>. So, for example, you might need to use this:

<script type="text/javascript">
makeMark('<?php the_permalink(); ?>', '<?php the_title(); ?>', '<?php the_date(); ?>', '');
</script>

(NB: I know nothing about WordPress, so I'm just guessing that this will work! Confirmation would be appreciated.)

Either way, you'll need to use JavaScript to load the appropriate variables with your blogging platform's variables. Fortunately, in most cases the default settings should work regardless of blogging platform, so try that first.

Troubleshooting and Feedback

We'd love to hear from you if you've got some suggestions or feature requests, or if you're having problems getting it working - or if you just want to share how you're using PopMarks. The best way is probably by posting a comment on the blog post. We've agreed to separate the troubleshooting between Freshblog and 3spots according to our respective contributions and areas of expertise. Basically, Freshblog is the place for your questions about the delivery (script, feed, presentation) while 3spots is the place for your questions about content (services, icons, listings). Don't worry about getting it wrong - we'll be happy to hear from you either way.

Credits and History

PopMarks is a collaboration between Greg at Freshblog, and Yuli at 3spots. It started when Greg, impressed by Yuli's dedication in listing 87 social bookmark services, was inspired to adapt his earlier MarkIt! hack to incorporate a dynamic list of services stored on delicious and accessed via JSON. After persuading Yuli of the benefits of this approach, Yuli set about building the list and very cool icons and symbols. Greg worked on the script and the end result is PopMarks!

The source code is released under a Creative Commons licence and people are encouraged to create their own lists of services on delicious by copying the bookmarks already there. You can set up PopMarks to use any list you like. We hope you find PopMarks useful and incorporate it into your blog.


Filed in: blogtech social-bookmarking blogger-hacks

Anne Handley has asked a number of bloggers what they consider to be the biggest lie about blogging. There's some great stuff there, and of course considering the biggest lie sheds some light on the essential truths too. For some reason I identify closely with Toby Bloomberg's contribution:

“It's not totally a non-geek medium. The more involved you become with blogging the more you want the bells and whistles included on your blog which takes some degree of tech/geek expertise. One of my biggest surprise-delights having 'geek' friends. I can not begin to tell you how kind and generous these guys have been to me.”

Of course I'm all about the blogging experience becoming a quest for bells & whistles. Anne wants to know what other lies you've run into and what truths you've discovered.... Great thread!

via Problogger

Filed In: blogging

A new occasional series here at Freshblog highlights the creative uses that people are finding for Blogger.

rr-jj.com are building a quotes blog, & using Blogger's archive features to do it. The front page, though, is all full-o-widgetry, with overlapping quotes that you can close one at a time by hovering over them 'til you see the x, and a "sidebar" list of archives that's actually in the footer. The footer also remembers the quotes that you close, and lets you reopen them if you want to.

A great illustration of what you can do with the Blogger platform without using all of the default functions. If you can flex it to fit your purpose, more power to your elbow! If you're doing something similarly innovative, e-mail me or comment here & we'll take a look!

If you've visited the Blogger Hacks Wiki, you'll notice the old-school Freshblog "F" up there in the top left. This is not cool, both because it is no longer the logo here and because the Wiki belongs to everyone, and not just team Freshblog.

If you're at a loose end, are graphically inclined, and would like to replace the "F" with something more appropriate, have at it. Send your image to me as an e-mail attachment. I'll post any & all entries received here before July 31st, & should multiple entries be forthcoming we'll open a poll the 1st week of August & let the readers pick the logo that goes on the Wiki. No prize or payment other than the glory of branding the wiki, & the backlink / eyeballs from here for all entries.

Filed in: blogger-hacks wiki images graphics

You may have noticed a certain slowing of output here lately. There's been a bit of a division of labor, but we're finally ready to take the wraps off Freshblog's secret project! Blogger Hacks goes Wiki!

Freshblog & Friends have established an EditThis! wiki for Blogger Hacks. Our goal is to put Blogger Hacks information out there in a format that is open, accessible, detailed, and clearly organised / categorised in a systematic way (as opposed to my fabulously haphazard list of links.)

The further goal is to make the submission of hacks very straightforward, and the maintenance of a comprehensive collection easy too.

The further-further goal is to provide a collaborative forum for the community of Blogger users who like to modify and extend the possibilities of the service, so that we can offer the highest standards of hackery to the whole community of blogger users, and accept unfiltered input from one another.

Here's the need-to-know info:

1. The wiki URL is http://edithis.info/bloggerhacks/ (Note the dot-info domain.)
   
2. To search the hacks that have been imported into the Wiki already, visit the category page for Hacks and browse the content alphabetically. Alternatively, search in the sidebar.
   
3. To submit a Hack, visit the Submit Hacks page. We're looking for consistent information about each hack, so we're asking you to copy a series of headings from the "create page" page, where you submit your title, and paste them into the new page that you create. Complete the information under each heading as fully as you're able to. To add categories to your page, use double square brackets [[category: hacks]]
   
4. To request a the development of a new Hack, first be fairly sure that it is possible, and be very sure that it isn't in the wiki already. Visit the Request Hacks page, and add a section at the top describing your needs. The hope is that many power-users of the blogger service will see your request, feel your pain, and investigate the possibilities on your behalf.
5. Talk pages are open, so feel free to talk-back, or discuss the hack that you're viewing!

Of course, we don't work for Google, Blogger, or anyone affiliated with Blogger, and these are user-designed modifications to your template that have been collected and linked to solely to make them easier to access. We haven't tested them all, don't guarantee their effectiveness, and are not in a position to restore your blog should the implementation of a hack not work out. This is a "buyer beware" situation. We strongly recommend that you back up your template before implementing any hack, and that you ask for the limited help / support that the wiki community can provide before you go forward with implementation.

That said (should it be in small print?) we're delighted to offer this new resource, and warmly invite you all to contribute your hacks in the interests of blogospheric collaboration. We're looking forward to building an ever more comprehensive hack collection. If we've added your stuff already (and we may have, if it was listed on Freshblog), please feel free to edit the relevant page and amplify the explanation. Please add your new hacks to the Wiki too, & let's create the ultimate resource for Blogger users.

You'll notice that the wiki offers amplifications and explanations, not outright how-to's. The goal is to link to existing content on relevant blogs, and to drive traffic to those places, not to reroute traffic from them. The source posts are the best descriptors of the individual hacks. The wiki contributes by standardising information for comparison, and enabling a user to select which hack will best suit their needs.

Data was imported into the wiki by:

• Ben
  
• Edelebe
• Greg
  
• Harmony
• James
• Julie
• Lisa
  
• USC Trojan (RPM)
  
• Shaheen
  
• Shelley
• Stephen
  

Many thanks to them for their contributions. Special mentions for Greg & Stephen who taught me to speak Wiki, and Julie, who has put in significant editorial time to get the wiki in shape for launch, and to Rob, the EditThis service owner, who fixed a bug last night so that we could roll out today!

If you have thoughts about the design & destiny of the Wiki, leave a comment here or on the talk pages. Otherwise, join the community, and enjoy this open format for Blogger modification!

If you're into Blogsearch and the possibilities thereof, Fred at TalkDigger needs you to help take the service to the next level:

Talk Digger has recently evolved. New features have been developed helping people creating communities around Web conversations, finding people with same interests, tracking and joining these evolving conversations.

I need about one hundred of hardcore users that will be willing to test this new web site, find and report bugs, suggest layout modifications and new features, and tell me what is wrong with this new version.

It looks like we're talking personal accounts and building the community around the conversation. Talkdigger as forum and not solely search. Sounds good, Fred!

Filed in: talkdigger blogtech blogsearch

Sarah likes her categories so much, she's serenaded her readers to celebrate:

For your perusal and delight
Please note o'er there what's on the right.
A 'category' link that takes you to
Del.ic.ious website where, for you
I've set up tags whereby you can
Find blog topics with a scan.

Very cool! Categories can bring out the poet in your soul!

Filed in: categories humor

Had my Plugaid beta invite today. The beta test provides account holders with the tools to start 3 plugaid "boxes." It's like having 3 wishes. Can I use the last box to wish for 3 more boxes?

But seriously... Thanks for the invite, Plugaid, and watch for the potent deployment of Box #1 next week... The volunteer project nears a point at which it should go public. An ideal time for a Plugaid box, perhaps?

Update, since Johan calls me on the carpet for producing a nothing post (ah, the blogosphere, so civil!) I wrote the review / intro / elevator pitch last week!

Filed in: freshblog blogtech webtech plugaid

Jason Tsang's all set up at Blogger, and, along with the rest of us, learning more about Blogging means coming to terms with the limitations. He's thinking of switching hosts:

Why would I think this? For the following reasons:

1. Lack of posting categories
2. Lack of a true trackback facility
3. Lack of RSS feeds for comments
4. (Related to point 1) Lack of RSS feeds for posting categories
5. Inflexibility of Blogger to host files other than photos
6. Need for better template creation/editing tools

Of course we at Freshblog have a number of hacks and tricks that can work around these limitations, but here's a further articulation of the need for Blogger 2.0, if and when such an upgrade occurs, to reflect the current and future state of the art. Blogging is currently a much more dynamic activity than the default platform allows. For a thread on this, see Stephen's Blog Platform survey, and the discussion of necessary additional features at Googlist.

Filed in: google, blogger, blogtech, webtech

Another inspired Blogger Hack from Aditya, this time a greasemonkey version of his Native Blog Search hack that will display search results in a sidebar on the Blogger "create post" page. This hack will show you content from your blog that is related to the post that you're writing. Think you wrote about that Web 2.0 startup already? Want to read your last rant about Technorati link counts before you publish this one? Auto-search for related posts in the create post page!

Filed in: google search blogsearch blogtech blogger-hacks

Stowe Boyd addresses MSM's take on web culture being subversive. perverse and ultimately damaging to your existence in the real world, and counters with the assertion that social networking is finally fulfilling the promise of the web as a third-space.

Filed in: blogtech, webtech

If you'd like your feedburner stats to come to you (& let's face it, who wouldn't), Randy points out Simone Carletti's Feedburner Stats 2 Feed. Great new tool that will deliver your stats to your reader. Let's see how the stats are served up when they reach the reader!

Filed in: stats feedburner feeds

Very cool move from Stephen at the Singpolyma Tech Blog. 5 templates for blogger, written from scratch, and pre-loaded with various combinations of Stephen's hacks. Now you don't need to install for yourself, you can just pick your poison... Great idea!

Filed in: blogtech webtech template blogger

Azer checks in to report that he's produced another zipped up *.rar file combo for your blogging pleasure, this one a widget for adding a Flickr slideshow to your blog. Have good stuff on Flickr? Want it to scroll happily across your pages? This one's for you.

Filed in: blogtech, webtech, images, blogger-hacks, flickr

Freshblog adds a post to the How I Blog series on the Blog Herald. Thanks for the chance to contribute, guys!

Filed in: freshblog blogging

A great tour of all the features and functions, complete with screencaps, is to be had at Paul Stamatiou's Blog.

The Firefox-based Flock aims to be your browser of choice with several key features aimed at the new generation of social web users. The number one question Flock has received is why can’t Flock just roll everything into an extension rather than a browser. The answer is simple. It is not possible to accomplish all that Flock does with a mere extension. You will soon see how this plays out. Flock isn’t any ordinary browser, it is the browser for you and your friends.

Have downloaded, and will be previewing asap!

Filed in: blogtech webtech

Ben Bishop reports that Flock has gone beta. Go download your copy. I'll be messing about with this forthwith, & watching for Ben's promised review.

Filed in: blogtech webtech

Another blogosphere perennial.... Jeremy Wright asks Is Technorati sick? The new wrinkle, and the reason I raise it here, is that Jeremy reports getting odd & incompatible search results on occasion. Over the past 2-3 weeks I have seen a similar thing. I subscribe to a vanity search to track my inbounds, & have recently begun to see results that have nothing to do with Freshblog. The topics aren't similar, and the links don't point here. Odd. Dave says he's investigating....

Filed in: technorati blogtech

Some discussion at Problogger & Performancing of when and whether it is OK simply to link. and whether the traffic on a blog grows when the content turns to thinking... My thought? Linking works if you already have a reputation and people are likely to be interested in something solely by virtue of the fact that you're interested in it. (Rubel, Darren, Randy...) For the rest of us, some original thought, explication and added value is required. Thus, the thinking! Ah, but this is a blogosphere perennial that will run & run!

Filed in: blogging

Kate has stopped Rambling and Wandering for long enough to enquire about your proclivities, Firefox-wise:

The aim is to get Firefox users to take a screencap of their Firefox. Here's what you do: take a screencap of your browser and submit it... along with a short description of what's going on in your Firefox, including a list of the extensions you have installed, the name of the theme you're currently using, and anything else you want [Kate] to know about how you run Firefox. Include a link to your blog or webpage...

Firefox evangelism, and the glorification of modding / customisation. What's not to like! I'm in!

Filed in: firefox, mozilla, webtech

Randy at the RSS Blog would welcome your input re: blogging tools that you've used. He's surveying the blogosphere to see which add-ons and support services (not search or hosting services) are of use to us. Go chime in, why don't you?

Filed in: blogging blogtech

Techcrunch on PlugAid. This is a trackback system that spins off the source post & doesn't require a user account. There's an embedded flash widget on the source post, and if you're so moved, you can click "participate" to get code to put the widget in your related post. You're required to enter a password, which you can use later to remove your link from the box.



Downsides: No link love, & a bit of jargon that isn't user friendly, as Marshall points out. Also, FYI for Blogger users, I had to manually append a closing embed tag to the plugaid code chunk before it would publish to Freshblog.

Upsides: No need to open a new window, log into Haloscan, ping, etc. The "participate" link will be right there in the post you just read. User contingent, too, so controlled by you rather than just emerging out of your search results.

Let's see how this emerges from alpha. Go sign up for an invitation!

Filed in: blogging blogtech techcrunch plugaid

Phydeaux3 takes the ajaxified Google blogsearch to a new level, adding the option to search multiple blogs with a single search widget. The prototype searches A Consuming Experience and The Last Word in addition to P3 (what no Freshblog, ahem!) Great tool. Want to know what another blogger is saying about the topic that you're reading about? Search their blog!

Filed in: google search blogsearch blogtech blogger-hacks

Had a heads-up from AudienceOne this weekend re: another way to add social bookmarking icons to your post footer. Audience has taken Dhiraj Gupta's post footer icons and stripped them down for blogspot users. No "onmouseover" function in the script (which apparently means no need to remotely host the script?) and Blogger's image hosting to hold on to your images. Simply paste them into a new post, change the date of the post to take it out of regular circulation, then view the post & grab the URL's to paste into your template. Here's the chunk of code for your footer.... (not so much a chunk as a boulder, really.... Makes me dizzy to look at it!

Anyway... another strategy for adding a full suite of icons. For what may well be the ultimate solution, watch for PopMarks.

Update 6/29: Popmarks is live!

Filed in: blogtech social-bookmarking

Alexandra Samuel explores the correlation between general chaos in your car and in your del.icio.us account. This makes me feel better... (you should see my living room....) Alexandra goes on to recommend a number of strategies for tidying your tagspace, and introducing order into your virtual living room..... Check it out. Maybe it'll spill over into the real world!

Filed in: blogtech technorati tags tagging del.icio.us

Over at Performancing, Nick wonders whether customised browsing / blogging has reached a tipping point. Certainly interesting to reflect on all the tools that are available to us as bloggers (and more broadly, to other internet users) allowing the customisation and personalisation of our experience. We're increasingly able to construct our own spheres of information, and to use that information easily in whatever way we need to. Does the convergence of technologies allow the divergence of use / application?

Filed in: blogtech webtech

C J Millisock has the scoop on adding an ajax-enabled Google blog search box to your blogspot blog. The result (see the top-right of CJ's blog) is a very nice expandable search box that floats over your blog and returns results with a link, citation and post extract. Neat hack, and there's a great comment from Dataphage on the possibility of tying categories to search results for topical searches across the blogosphere.

via Blogger Buzz

Filed in: google search blogsearch blogtech blogger-hacks

I've been outfoxed and befuddled by a hack that I listed here, and would appreciate clarification from the brainstrust:

Kuribo's sitemap hack uses a greasemonkey script to generate a sitemap for your blogspot blog. I have a reader who is stuck with step 4. What are we supposed to do after clicking the button and generating the file?

Filed in: blogtech google

We're looking for volunteers (10-12 people?) with an hour or two to spare in the service of Freshblog's next project. It's a data entry thingumajigger, & instructions / support will be provided, along with credit and grateful thanks. It is important to note that you will not get paid! There's a thing we're trying to roll out, & if it's going to be done before retirement / vacation / christmas (insert distracting life-event here) it would be great to put some more shoulders to the wheel. If you're techy (even sort-of techy), have a couple of hours to spare in the next 2 weeks that you'd like to spend online, and want to know what the heck I'm rambling about, shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment. It'll be good when it's done, I promise!

Filed in: freshblog blogtech webtech

Stephen wants to know what you want out of your blogging service:

What is the perfect blogging
service? We're all going to answer differently, but hopefully some
patterns will emerge. What features are important? Forget for a moment
what is supported by your particular platform and just tell us what you
want. Not what you wish you had, but what you want even if you have it.

The
purpose of this survey is not to determine one particular existing
service that is the 'perfect blogging service', but rather to identify
the feature set that is important to bloggers.

Head on over to the Singpolyma Tech Blog & respond. As hackologists and modders, you're ideally placed to comment on the features and functions that make blogging more interesting, dynamic & fun.

Filed in: blogging

In a post that starts interesting & then deteriorates into an ad (this is a blog for a service, after all....) Sphere roll out their new featured blog service by asking:

So, how do you find good blogs? How do you find blogs that haven’t been
started and then stopped two months later when the reality of the
commitment sunk in? How do you find blogs that go beyond the mere
reporting of the day’s activities, providing both inspiration and
support, information, connection, conversation if you want it and just
a quick break from the daily grind?

Of course (shocker), they'd like you to use Sphere to get the job done, and perhaps I will... Still leaves the initial question as a decent one, though....especially when accompanied by the provocative internet philosophy nugget that "search was created to compensate for bad navigation."

Flip side of the last few posts pointing to tips & tricks for writers. Let's collect some tips & tricks for readers. Comment away, if you'd be so kind!

Filed in: blogging

Seth Godin weighs in with a post that spells out all the traffic-building rules and regs. 'Tis a list of 56 behaviors that will impact, improve and develop your blog. There's something there for everyone. My personal favorites:

38: Write about blogging.
39: Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
51: Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.

Some contradictions in there, or at least apparent ones, such as be topical - be timeless, and include comments - don't include comments, with solid arguments for each approach. Check out the list, and I'm sure you'll pull together enough points to find your personal philosophy validated.

Filed in: blogging

3Spots points out RSS2Gif, which brings the long-desired interactive sidebar one step closer! This is a tool that will take a specified feed, and create an automatically-updating image listing recent post titles in the selected feed. For a linkroll without using .js, or a recent posts list that looks a little different, try this out. Probably not ideal for multiple sites / sidebar post lists, but a great new tool in the arsenal.....

Filed in: blogging blogtech feeds

John T riffs on ways to handle ambiguous tags:

Technorati is great at collecting user based tags from blog posts, when you view a tag like apple you’ll get a mix of computer and food posts.

What if there was a register for all these tags…microformats does something similar. When you include the tag review in your blog post, you append it according to what the code for review is in the register.

So... tags within categories? The whole thing is a recipe, (or a blog hack) but the ingredients are del.icio.us, freshtags..... When would it be useful to have a super-set of broader categories?

Filed in: blogtech technorati tags tagging del.icio.us

Phydeaux3 reports that RSS feeds are now available. A sign of upgrades to come?

The ATOM 0.3 feed still resides at it's same location,
http://blogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml with the RSS 2.0 feed is now at
http://blogname.blogspot.com/rss.xml . If you haven't published since
around May 30th, if you make a new post or republish your blog you
should get the new RSS feed.

Interesting! An under-the-radar upgrade? A test? Recognition that feeds and readers are taking off?....

Filed in: blogtech blogger feeds

While we're looking at effective blogging behavior, there's a great post at Performancing discussing ways to find a unique blog-voice while not losing sight of the audience that you're trying to reach. Some great tips for finding your niche....

You might be thinking "people seem to like
my blog already, I don't need to do this". It is surprising how
effective spending a little time trying to get into your audience heads
can be.... When you hit the spot it really pays
off.

You have to remember you are not your audience,
you only get really successful not when you entertain yourself but when
you are interesting to your readers. The keys to this are locked in
your audiences heads and you need to work to reveal them.

A good summary. I'm a particular fan of this whole process, & I think the Freshblog story is an example of the (moderately) good things that can happen when you focus and tailor your blogging  in response to audience interests and cues. Find your microsphere.....

Filed in: blogging