Which Blogger service shall I kill next?

Image: Pixabay

The pixels were barely dry last spring on my seven-part tutorial about inserting images into blogs when Google flipped the board and scattered the pieces to the wind.

All that work, all those screenshots and animations, became obsolete.

Subscribe-by-email will end in July

POPULAR SERVICE CONNECTS BLOGS TO READERS

Image: Pixabay         

The automated subscribe by email service, which is part of Feedburner, will shut down in July, Google announced on Wednesday.

The move leaves users of Blogger with no clear choice for how to continue to offer a subscribe option to readers, though many third-party solutions exist.

The "subscribe by email" gadget will also stop working that time.

Don't drop photos into your blog

USE INSERT INSTEAD

At the moment, though I hope things will change, do not add images into your posts by dragging them from your device or from another web page.

This method kind of works and looks okay, but there are side effects that are not immediately obvious.

Insert images from the edit toolbar instead.

Your blog in a feed reader

LIKE A BROADCAST

Unless you disable the option, your readers can subscribe to your blog in a feed reader. 

Feeds are the open-source alternative to subscribe-by-email and to following.

Here's how they work.

Following, and followers

Max Pixel photo

"Following" is one of three ways that your readers can opt to be notified when you publish a new post on your blog. 

Followers are those who have added your blog to their reading list at www.blogger.com.

Google provides a Followers widget where anyone with a Blogger account can sign up as a follower. The widget also shows who your public followers are. 

However, there are other widgets, and other ways to follow.

Subscribe by Email

"Subscribe by Email" is one of three ways that readers can elect to be notified when you publish a blog post. 

Update: Google is canceling this service effective in July.

"Subscribe by Email" is also the name of a sidebar gadget in Blogger that will present this option to your readers.

Hipster interface design

BIT OF A RANT HERE

Websites should be clean and simple. Also, they should be transparent and functional. 

These two criteria do not always dance well together. 

Furthermore, the optimal mix of simplicity and functionality might be different if you are viewing and interacting on your phone versus a computer with a large monitor.

In my view as a desktop user, The New Blogger often strikes the wrong balance. (But in many respects, the legacy UI did too: I am a critic from way back).