Blogger Updates: New Interface and Settings

After much anticipation, Google finally made it clear just a week before that the Blogger is getting the new look. The new look was previewed at the SXSW earlier this month and now we also have the switch link available. Although the option has been available there for some time but starting next month Blogger will be moved and will no longer be a preview or "another" option. At least so it seems as we see our dashboard today morning. Here is a quick look for you before we dive in to the new much cleaner interface and some other recent updates to the product:

It took a little for us to find the Settings link, so we though to provide you with a tip here on how to dive in to the new look which has been the talk since a few months now. 

The moment you click on the Ugrade Now link in the above image, the next page will have a pretty decent look, but if you are looking to preview the new look click on the down arrow as shown in the image to your left here. From the drop click on the Settings link (the last one) to land on the new look page. We will show you partly how the new look looks like, but first here is a look to a more interesting addition: the Search Preference

You will find it as the last option in the Settings menu. Clicking this pulls up some more options like the Meta Tags, Errors and redirections and Crawlers and indexing.
A few of these options especially the Search Description also appear in the Post Setting area, when enabled. This option is handy when you would like users to tell what the post is about when they see the post description in the search results. The same is true for the blog as well. The moment the users see your blog as a search result (while doing a Google), they will have a short view (150 characters) of what the page is all about.
Another good option is to provide a meaningful message to your readers when they (for whatever reason) land on a page that doesn't exists on your blog (wrong link or page moved or blah blah). This time you have an option to do that in the Errors and redirection section. Just provide a nice handy message and more importantly tell your readers what they should do now that they are in a no man's land.
The other section for the Crawlers and indexing could be a bit tricky to understand. Make sure to refer the Help Center to get a more familiar understanding on what to do. As you can see, doing without knowing may create problems later on.
As we promised, here is more or less the full look of the new interface:

These options will be easy to find on the Settings section. Other small yet very useful updates will be available from the post editor. The options that we are talking about are detailed next:
Alt and Title Tags
We are sure you are familiar to how important the alt and title tags are to make sure the images on your site are seo compliant. Adding these was a problem with blogger earlier. Not that you couldn't but it wasn't that easy. Seems Google paid enough attention on this as they now have a very easy way. Once you Insert image on your blog, just select the image and in 

the other options like adjusting the size and position you will now have the option Properties, selecting which provides a nice pop up to let you enter the alt and title tags for your images. Nice and simple!


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Another simple yet effective option is to let the search engines know that you do not want some links on your site to be considered when the search bots come to look for links and information on your site. Google added an option in the Link popup to do the same. Just check the checkbox and you are done.

Here is the image for your reference, on your right. As a side note the new interface is not only cleaner but also uses the Google Web Toolkit so you get the latest in the Technology. More fun the much cleaner and smart way for you!!


We finally end this post for video for you to enjoy the new Blogger interface. Have fun and enjoy the new interface and updates to your so loved blogging platform and yes, Happy Crunching!!