3.26.2008

Small blog changes

I've often noticed that many blogs and websites have a personalized icon (called a favicon perhaps because it shows up in your browser favourites menu) which precedes the URL in the browser address bar and on browser tabs as well as appearing in links bars, desktop internet shortcuts and next to the site feed in RSS readers. I recently tripped across this Digital Inspiration tutorial which shows how to replace the standard blog favicon with your own personalized version. I tried it out and felt the usual sense of accomplishment that comes with playing around with blog code. The new favicon was made from a photo of this quilt which is still in progress.

Next, I decided to hide the Blogger navbar, that pesky tool bar which is plastered across the top of all Blogger blogs. Why hide it? Because I never use it, it looks clunky, and it's a subtle, or maybe not so subtle form of advertising, which I don't find particularly enhances my blog. A quick Google search turned up this Real Blogger Status tutorial with instructions for hiding the navbar, including a discussion about any legal issues which may be involved. After hiding the navbar, I thought that readers might still occasionally want to do a blog search and after another fruitful Google search I added a Blogger search box to the sidebar using this clearly explained Tips for New Bloggers tutorial.

Lastly, I juggled the sidebar contents around a bit so that the tag cloud, search box and archives sit at the top. I felt that the tag cloud gives a far better idea of what the blog is about than my personal statement does. Another idea whose time has come, is migrating the blogroll to a feed reader like Bloglines or Google Reader, instead of listing it on the blog sidebar like I do. One blogger who's already done this is Lisa Call, who explains the thinking behind this move here. I'll save that job for later, once I've synchronized my blogroll with my feedreader subscriptions. That'll be the day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well done - favicons are cool! And, since you got rid of the Blogger nav bar, I'm pleased that you add the "Search" function to your sidebar. I hope that others learn not to be afraid to play around with code and widgets.