New Blogger accounts now live with lots of goodies.

Blogger beta is now Blogger new and Blogger is now Blogger old. Confused yet?

Basically all the new features that were in the Blogger beta have been launched and everyone is encouraged to switch over. They aren’t forcing you just yet, but they will be eventually.

So what do you get with the new Blogger?

First off, drag and drop template designing. This is far superior to the old way where you just got the HTML source. It makes it much easier to add, remove or edit items on your blog.

Second, you can now set permissions on your blog. That way only those you allow access to can see it. Great for group blogs that you don’t want public.

Third, Labels. Yes lovely labels. They are the same as tags or categories, but Google calls them labels. You can finally keep your blog organized. However, the more labels you put in, the bigger your label navigation gets. It’s not perfect, but it’s much better than before.

Fourth, and best of all, no waiting for publishing. Yes, the dreaded spinning publishing sign is going away. Personally, I hated that thing. The bigger your blog, the more you probably disliked it. No more, instant publishing from here on out.

So what do you have to do to switch? Just go to the migration page and get in line. Have your Google login ready as you’ll need it. They claim that your posts, comments and template will be preserved so there is nothing to worry about there. If I were you, I’d wait a few days until you see if any issues really do pop-up.

This is one big step for Blogger and one that is very welcome. Still, some blog optimization is needed, but the usability aspect is much greater.

Welcome back Blogger, welcome back. 🙂