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Sunday, June 12, 2011

An Accidental Redesign and a Blogger Gripe

If you’re viewing this post on http://www.lawfficespace.com/ then you already know… I implemented a few changes over the weekend. It all started when Dan Schwartz re-launched Connecticut Employment Law Blog (it’s awesome, go check it out). I saw his “highlights” and thought that adding links to recent posts at the top of Lawffice Space would be a great addition. So I added the “Recent Posts” section you see now.

Unfortunately, when I added the Recent Posts, it created a glitch/visual mismatch with the template I had been using. So, I switched to the new template you see now (it’s very subtle). Then, the banner was the wrong size (plus it pushed the first post down too far on the screen IMO). So, I created the simple, compact, yet elegant banner you see before you.

Which brings us to my gripe about the Blogger “upgrade”…

I had implemented some customized share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. When I switched templates, Blogger wiped out the buttons. To make matters worse, the new version of Blogger doesn’t allow me to directly edit the HTML. That means, I can’t even go in and re-implement the buttons. You still have some sharing buttons at the bottom of each post, but I am at Google’s whim as far as which buttons appear now and in the future. For example, there’s no LinkedIn button and the Facebook and Retweet counts are gone. Given Google’s numerous (and frankly, not very successful) efforts to break into social media, I have serious concerns about how anxious they are to add new and competing sharing tools. On the plus side, there’s a Google +1 button now (yay?).

UPDATE (6/20/2011): As you can see, the share buttons are back now. You can remove the "Make Blogger in Draft My Default" check box. Go to www (not draft) . blogger . com and you will be in the "old" version which will allow you to edit/update HTML. I assume the "draft" version will soon be the official version, so it may be a good idea to get those HTML edits in there now.

Posted by Philip Miles, an attorney with McQuaide Blasko in State College, Pennsylvania in the firm's civil litigation and labor and employment law practice groups.

2 comments:

  1. Phil, I like your re-design. You should ditch Google and boot up Wordpress. I have never even heard of the Google "+1" thing...what does that even mean.

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  2. Thanks Jon. I've looked at other options, but just haven't had the time/motivation to make a jump. +1 is Google's response to the FB Like button... but instead of appearing in your Facebook feed "+1s" appear in your searches. To date, I have somewhere around zero +1s... doesn't seem to be catching on.

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