Beta-testing the new Blogger beta

LAST NIGHT, I spent close to 3 of the 12-hour credit that came with the discounted Blast card that my wife secured through her niece's internet cafe in Pili, which is my hometown.

Ordinarily, I would scrimp on it to prolong its life, opting instead to wake up early just before cooking my son's breakfast (as he needs to be at Cam High before 6 am) so I can avail of Blast's free internet from 12 midnight to 8 am. Or I would postpone tasks requiring bigger bandwidth so I can use the broadband service at City Hall when I report for work.

But last night was a special night, as I was hooked by Blogger's ongoing beta-testing of its new version that provides new functionalities, including that one I most desire: the ability to categorize posts, which initially drew me to Wordpress (see this), and in the process of finding workarounds in the old Blogger version, made me register with Del.icio.us (whose tags you will see in my sidebar).

But it seems I will have to stick with Blogger for the time being. The new Archives functionality is quite nifty (but it should come with the ability to right-justify entries), as is the Labels tool, which is Blogger's answer to Wordpress' Category and Del.icio.us' Tags. Also, it still lacks the HTML editing option, although Blogger promises to incorporate it in "days not weeks" timeframe.

Migrating to and from the new Blogger format is quite easy, but I intend to do so only when the new version is fully ready, when I have streamlined my own categories (I had more than 15 when I tried it), and when I already have greater control over the template through HTML editing.