Too Clever By Half

A CATALOG OF DISCONTENTS ¶ 

So why do the Responsive blog themes, introduce by Google in 2017, continue to give me pause nine years later? ¶ 

Don't get me wrong: the fact that these are responsive means they provide a superior user experience on mobile. That is huge. ¶ 

Most web traffic today comes from phones, and a responsive theme makes your work easier to read, find, and navigate from there. ¶ 

Nonetheless, there are tradeoffs.

This isn't permanent, but as of today, and for maybe a month or so, this blog will be rendered according to the responsive theme I have been working on lately. ¶ 

What do you think? Your questions are also welcome. ¶ 

More below.

And, you do have options.

If you haven't done so lately, read your blog on a phone.

At least some of your readers do. ¶ 

(If you haven't got a phone, there's a workaround below.) ¶ 

Do you like what you see?

Should I switch to a mobile-friendly blog theme? ¶ 

And who blogs from their phones anyway? ¶ 

Do you?

If you've been blogging for a while, you might feel both intrigued and timid about making changes. ¶ 

You might hold back from trying a new blog theme for fear of subjecting your readers to an experiment, or to an extended period of switching things around. ¶ 

Ideally, you'd test and debug things in private, and then go live with the new design once it is ready for prime time. ¶ 

You can do that. I have done it twice (for another blog).

A CRITICAL APPRAISAL

Creative Commons attribution below

Even the very oldest Blogger themes (also called "templates") still work, in that they faithfully render their contents on the World Wide Web.

Beyond that, any of the three families of themes from the past decade are broadly  functional. Each family has advantages and drawbacks not offered by the others.

So, a reasonable question is, what theme should I use today? 

Blogger Themes and Templates Throughout the Ages

Early Blogger themes lacked a sidebar and other features we take for granted today.

The customizable responsive themes that Google introduced in 2017 (Notable, Emporio, Contempo, Soho) are the latest family of Blogger offerings since Blogger's inception (pre-Google) in 1999.

The three most recent "generations" of themes, Designer (2010), Dynamic (2011), and Responsive (2017), are each still widely in use.

I have been evaluating four elegant, stylish new themes (aka templates) from Blogger. ¶ 

Creative Commons attribution below ¶

Released in March, the themes incorporate many important modern features and play especially well with the tiny screens of phones and mobile devices. ¶ 

However, these themes are not for everyone. Here is the story.

If you are an early adopter you may already have switched your blog to one of the shiny new dynamic templates.

But maybe you are cautious (like me), your face pressed wistfully against the glass, eyeing the sleek futuristic designs but aware of some drawbacks (and uncertain of others).

Sigh no more! You can link directly to dynamic views of your blog without changing your template.