There are a couple more new and improved features of Google's Blogger Beta, which this blog now uses, that I just wanted to mention because they're really quite cool.
The first new feature is the "Search This Blog" feature. This has been around since I've been using Blogger, so it's not really new per se, but its implementation is. The search field can be found at the top of every page of every Blogger blog. In the past it used Google's Blog Search, which is both currently in beta, and currently seriously broken, which is big reason I've switched to Blogger Beta. But now it seems to use some kind of internal search magic. Now when you use it you're no longer transferred to a Google Blog Search page, but instead get the search results right from within the blog itself. This is brilliant and beautiful, and it's the way it should be.
Blogger: Search This Blog
(click image for larger view)
The second very new feature (like, as of maybe last week) is a back-end deal, but it's incredibly useful to authors. In the Post Manger you get a list of all your posts, ordered by date. But now, for the first time, you have some options for viewing this list. Of particular interest to me is the ability to view posts by Label. Blogger has not only leveraged their new Label feature in the front-end, but very smartly in the back-end, and it's just one more pleasant surprise that's making my blogging life that much easier, and encouraging me to stick with the Blogger system.
I have to say, there's nothing quite as impressive as a beta that works significantly better than its stable counterpart. I've had no troubles and gobs of joy from this Blogger Beta. Of course, now that I've said that out loud I should expect everything on the site to go instantly and irretrievably wonky. But until then, my hat's off to the development team for Blogger Beta. You guys are kicking some serious ass. Thanks!