Blogger Introduces Dynamic View

Do you have a blog on Blogger?  Well, they have just introduced “Dynamic Views”.  Watch this:

To check this out, simply add /view to my URL.  So, keeperoftherecords.blogspot.com will change to keeperoftherecords.blogspot.com/view. 
To enable this on your Blogger blog, first you have to check your settings.  Blogger says:

These dynamic views will work on your blog if all of the following are true:

Your blog is public. Your readers don’t need to sign in to view your blog.

Your blog has feeds fully enabled. In the Settings | Site feed tab, you have enabled either Full or Jump Break for your Post Feed.

You have not disabled dynamic views. In the Setting | Formatting tab, the option for Enable Dynamic Views is set to Yes.

I think this is pretty cool!  There are other photo –rich blogs that I read where the thumbnails in the flipcard view will be awesome for searching!  Kuddos to Blogger for a job well done.  Now if they could just create a button somewhere instead of having to type /view in the address bar…

©2010 Joanne Schleier - All Rights Reserved.

Google Announces “Shared Spaces”

Yes, my friends, Google has done it again and opened their beta version of Shared Spaces.  So, when I heard about it I went to check it out to see what it can do to help with genealogy, of course!


I have been using Google Wave to collaborate with a couple of cousins about our research together on common ancestral lines and I think the general consensus has been that it’s a MARVELOUS tool for doing just that!  But Google announced in August that it would no longer be developing Wave as a stand-alone product, but that they would carry that technology to another product – Shared Spaces.  It is still in Google Labs and not fully developed yet.


If you have a Google, Twitter or Yahoo account, then you don’t need to sign up for this new service – you’re all ready to start a Shared Space.  Once you start one, then you copy the link to share with friends, colleagues, or in our case, fellow researchers!  There is even a real-time chat area to have discussions while you’re collaborating.


I could see how this would be a great tool for planning a trip – like for research or a conference.  First you could create a Yes/No/Maybe gadget to determine who’s attending with you.  Use the Travel With Me or Trippy gadget to plan it all out together. Add the AccuWeather.com gadget to tell you what the weather will be like while visiting your destination.  There’s even a carpool gadget and people can pick their seats!  SHOTGUN!  Set up the Waffle gadget to create the itinerary. And finally the Remaining Time gadget to countdown to the big event!


I’m still usin’ Google Wave!  I only wish more people used it in conjunction with email because it would be easier to add a contact to a Wave if I didn’t have to invite them first!  Please try Google Wave to collaborate with other genealogists!  You won’t regret that you tried it and if you don’t like it you can come tell me so because I feel so strongly that if you're not using Wave to collaborate, you're missing out!  


I have not used the new Shared Spaces because I just learned of it tonight, but I don’t think it will replace me makin’ Waves.  Maybe I’ll go play cards there.  Let me know if you try it and what you think about it too, k? 


P.S. Speaking of Spaces, still can't figure out the double spaces between paragraphs problem here.  Sorry about that!

©2010 Joanne Schleier - All Rights Reserved.