Blogger Goes Dynamic - I like, two thumbs up!

If you read my blog then obviously you know that I use blogger. They recently introduced a brand new layout design called dynamic templates and I'm pleasantly surprised (especially with the magazine view). It's not just a different template, it's a whole new design system for blogger (at least from what I can tell!)

The Good

I think the new template(s) is really cool and functionally appealing. I love how it pulls out video or images from your post and places them by the headline. I also like how it condenses the articles so that viewers can see multiple articles when they hit the landing page of your blog (whereas before you'd simply see whatever was the first article).

It's also worth noting that every blog post now comes with a retweet and Facebook button (thank you Google for not being proprietary and limiting people's social networking options! Although I still think YouTube would be much better if you could retweet from within the YouTube site).

The Bad

The only negative right now is that the dynamic template isn't compatible with Blogger gadgets, so in using this template I've lost all my sidebar gadgets. But it's not a big deal as the gadgets will be available soon they say.

I'll also have to play around with just how much the display can be customized. It would have been nice if they had added some image customization options. My one fear with this dynamic design is that if everyone switches over to it, everyone's blogs are going to look pretty much identical. Yet, I'm hoping that this is just the first template in the 'dynamic' line and that there will be many more to come.

And I've got to also say, big kudos to Google for keeping all the original templates in place so that people don't have to switch over if they don't want to. It drives me nuts when services introduce a new 'option' but don't allow you access the original option if you preferred it.

The Verdict

Overall, two thumbs way up for dynamic templates, I think it adds real value to the blogging experience. I hope they continue to add new features so that one day a blog can be as visually pleasing and content pliable as a Web site is.

Also, here's a quick video Google did promoting dynamic templates. They used some kinetic typography and a pretty good sound track and it keeps you interested despite it being a pretty simple overview (note to PR folks, audio tracks are part of your messaging, anything that creates an 'impression' or 'feeling' in the viewer is shaping your message.)

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