Finally! A Native Blogger Categories. The blogging community wished, requested, and waited for it long enough. After seven years of cajoling, hacking a work-around, and wishing to Google that they add native categories to Blogger, the real mccoy, a Blogger Categories made under Google's umbrella, has at last, arrived.

To Blogger or not to Blogger

Almost a year ago when I decided to plunge into the blogging scene, the first question I asked myself was "what Content Management System should I use?" After asking around and glancing at what others are using, I managed to narrow down my choices to four: Wordpress because of it's dynamic nature, its powerful anti-spam system and categories; Movable Type because of A List Apart, and categories; and Livejournal because of its growing community, and (well you guess it) categories; and Blogger because its easy to use and its free.

So even though I'm comfortable with codes, and despite its shortcoming, I appreciated Blogger's "push button publishing" stance, and chose it. It has been time proven again and again in the Internet, that making something easier and simpler to use, makes it more acceptable to more and more users. As Tim Berners-Lee made the Internet more palatable by introducing the web, and as Mosaic web browser made the web more usable, so has Blogger made blogging known everywhere.

But 7 years down the road since Pyra created Blogger, and I ask myself does this still hold true? Has age made Blogger ungraceful? Mosaic faded to oblivion after Netscape was release - will Blogger go down the same winding road?

Blogger, Blogger, where are you?

Some people bemoan at how slow Blogger upgrade its system. After all they say, Wordpress has updated last month: it opened a free web hosting option (although you still have to pay to tweak the template codes) with similar to blogspot subdomain (yourblog.wordpress.com). They also released the 2nd version of their software last November, and by the looks of it, I must say that Wordpress is the most robust system there is.

Meanwhile Six Apart is focusing on the paid route, licensing Movable Type (a move which made a lot of their user base transfer to Wordpress), while at the same time offering a simpler version to their Typepad clients, and then emphasizing the community-centric dogma of Livejournal.

So where is Blogger in all this developments?

Blogger version 3.0

This month marks the 7 years since Pyra created Blogger. Since then, Blogger bears witness to only one major reform. After the dotcom bubble, Pyra find itself strap for cash. Three years later Google bought Pyra, and a year after the purchase, Google redesigned the interface. This redesign I call Blogger version 2.0. Google has been fine-tuning Blogger since the version 2 redesigned. For example, in the span of two years, Google added an improved visual and audio captcha, a comment moderation, and an image hosting, among others.

But what of the number one most requested feature, the categories?

We lack, therefore we invent

I'm amazed at how people turn what's missing into an opportunity. A peek at some of the category hacks listed at Freshblog, showed the ingenuity of people and the variety of ways they skirt around limitations.

With the arrival of Labels, I suspect that many of the categories hacks would be superseded.

Early Blogger Beta: No Edit HTML

Since Blogger is in a Beta phase, Editing HTML is not available in Blogger Layouts. Blogger Buzz though has stated that it will open up the feature in a few of days. If you'd like to use the new Blogger Labels now and has an old Blogger Account, here are some of my ideas which I've implemented here.

To access Blogger Beta

1. Fill up the form in Create a Google Account page at Blogger Beta.

2. Click Continue.

3. Fill up the form in Name your Blog.

4. Click Continue.

5. Choose a template by clicking on the radio button.

6. Click Continue.

7. Click start posting, after your blog has been created.

8. Click Sign out.

To Migrate to Blogger Beta

1. Go to blogger.com

2. Sign in using your Blogger Account.

3. Click Migrate to Blogger Beta (located at the right hand lower portion of your dashboard).

3a. If you can't see the update link. Try entering your Blogger Account in the Migrate Page.

3b. If you still can't do that, then you are, at the time being, not allowed to migrate.

4. Click Continue.

5. Click Accept Terms of Services.

6. Click Continue.

To add labels to your old posts without loosing your OLD TEMPLATE.

1. Click Template > Customize Design > Upgrade your Template

2. Click a Template > Save Template

3. Click Postings > Edit Posts > Edit

4. Enter a label for your post on the Labels box.

5. Do the same for every post.

6. When you are at the last post > Click show all (it's beside the Labels box)

7. Highlight the labels > Copy

8. Open a text editor > Paste > Save

9. Create list of labels in your text/html editor using the following format:

10. Replace yourpage with the name of your blog.

11. Replace yourlabels with one of your labels.

12. Click Template > Edit HTML > Revert to Classic Template

13. Paste the list of your labels inside the sidebar.

12. Click Publish.

Note

Whenever you need to create or edit a post, do it in the Layouts mode. Label for that particular post will be lost if you edit it in the Classic Template mode

Backup your template, so that when Blogger do open the Edit HTML options, all you have to do is paste your old template.

That's it! Hope you implemented it well. If you have some questions or suggestions, leave a comment here, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.