Thursday, July 12, 2007

Add Interactive Search to Blogger Without Knowing AJAX

Blogger in Draft launched a pretty handy new feature that allows users to add in Google AJAX Search to their blogs without knowing any coding. Users could add in a Google Custom Search box as a new page element and choose what the search results will cover, i.e. Only the content in the blog, sites that the blog links to or the web. Different results are separated in tabs.

Here are a few suggestions from me:

  1. Bloggers should be able to add in their own AdSense publisher ID to enjoy a revenue share with Google every time a visitor clicks on the ads in the search results.
  2. More customizable options should be added to the set up menu. Users should be able to control stuff like the color scheme of the search results, whether the Google logo is displayed outside the search box or inside the text box.
  3. Other kinds of Google search (such as Blog Search, Image Search, etc.) should be made available.
Furthermore, the 'Poll' feature is out of draft!

Related: Blogger in Draft

2 comments:

Wayne Smallman said...

I'm glad to see that Google are finally taking Blogger seriously.

I've been planning my escape for a quite a while, now (provisional code name: "Planet WordPress") but I'm still still holding out hope for Google pulling Blogger up by its belt straps and putting it on level terms with the likes of WordPress.

The revenue sharing is about fair, and ties in nicely with AdSense inclusion within Blogger, which incidentally is a half-hearted effort in need of some revision...

Unknown said...

I agree that Blogger still needs much more work to catch up with WordPress. And Google should be more active when it comes to product integration. Currently, there is still no way for users to easily choose photos that have already been uploaded to Picasa Web Album and blog about it in Blogger.

It seems that Google is currently not charging advertisers for clicks generated via the new AJAX search box according to an interview as they are still experimenting with this widget.

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