Using Blogger in Beta

Writer Way was created using the new version of Blogger, which seems to be known simply as Blogger in Beta. (You'd think it would be called something like "Blogger 2.0 in Beta," wouldn't you?)

Starting from scratch using Blogger in Beta is quite smooth. (It's similar to setting up a lens in Squidoo.) Posting entries to your blog is pretty much the same as in the previous version, except you can now add labels (which appear to be Blogger's version of Technorati's tags). The big leap forward is the easy-to-customize pre-coded blocks for all the sidebar stuff -- links, lists, archives. You select and customize blocks which can then be arranged in the order you want. The pop-up for previewing your sidebar work before saving and publishing is handy.

BTW, It's possible to transition an existing Blogger blog to the beta system with relatively few glitches -- I moved another blog, which features quite a bit of third-party HTML in the sidebar, and encountered only one, easily fixable, glitch.