Google just launched dynamic views for Blogger, its free blogging platform, and they are something else. Powered by AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3, these new themes for Blogger users are heavy-duty, interactive designs, not mere blog templates. The announcement claims that they also load ’40 percent faster than traditional templates,’ but that will require some testing. Just in trying to load Google’s blog posts announcing this update, this author saw lots of new Blogger loading graphics with spinning gears.
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Nevertheless, these designs look amazing. They have infinite scrolling, dynamic loading of graphics and new posts, easy re-sorting, keyboard shortcuts for navigation and, of course, one-click sharing to Google Plus ‘and other social sites.’ There are seven new templates, and they can be gently customized. More customization options will be added ‘in the coming weeks.’ The flagship Google blogs for Gmail, LatLong and Docs are getting dynamic makeovers, too.
From the Blogger Buzz blog, here are descriptions and examples of the seven new themes:
Classic (Gmail): A modern twist on a traditional template, with infinite scrolling and images that load as you go
Flipcard (M loves M) – Your photos are tiled across the page and flip to reveal the post title
Magazine (Advanced Style) – A clean, elegant editorial style layout
Mosaic (Crosby’s Kitchen) – A mosaic mix of different sized images and text
Sidebar (Blogger Buzz Blog) – An email inbox-like view with a reading page for quick scrolling and browsing
Snapshot (Canelle et Vanille) – An interactive pinboard of your posts
Timeslide (The Bleary-Eyed Father) – A horizontal view of your posts by time period
You can input the URL of any Blogger blog to preview it in Dynamic Views here.
Blogging Gets Complicated
Blogger is bringing the heat with this update. It builds on last month’s overhaul of the blogging control panel and analytics dashboard, and its first native iPhone app launched earlier this month. I guess that rebranding effort we heard about in July isn’t happening. Right now, the Blogger brand looks about as strong as ever. The move puts Blogger squarely in the camp of the bigger, louder, more intense new wave of publishing tools. These designs are not quite the full-screen blowouts of new ventures like Jux, but they certainly stretch the constraints of the term ‘blog.’
It’s a smart move, since competitors are going the other way. Tumblr designs aren’t exactly minimal, but the tool is best suited for small posts that get re-shared into all kinds of different venues and layouts, and it pretty much owns that market. Posterous has tried to turn even sharper, rearranging its app around mobile posting and sharing, edging more into the territory of social media tools. And no one can forget WordPress, which is doing just fine, thank you very much, but its ecosystem rests on themes developed by third parties, and these new dynamic Blogger themes are a step or three above, technologically.
What do you think of the new Dynamic Views in Blogger? Tell us in the comments.
